…Female fraudster convicted
December 4, 2015 By Patrick Jaiah Kamara
A female fraudster called Ramatulai Shaban Jalloh has been convicted by Justice Sam Margai at the Freetown High Court for fraudulently obtaining monies from nineteen people amounting to seventy-five million six hundred and fifty thousand Leones (Le75,650,000) by purporting to be an employee at the American Embassy in Freetown.
She was charged with nineteen counts of obtaining money by false pretences, and is due to be sentenced Monday, 7 December.
Court records show that the convict had promised to facilitate overseas travelling visas for her victims, as part of a phony resettlement programme to the United States of America.
According to State Prosecutor Ahmed G. M. Bockarie, Ms. Jalloh the convict, by way of false pretences in early 2011 in Freetown collected the above amount of money from nineteen persons by purporting to facilitate their travel to the United States.
Pleading on behalf of the convict, defense counsel Ishmael Philip Mammie said urged the court to temper Justice with mercy, adding that she had shown remorse for her despicable conduct, thus changing her plea of not guilty to guilty.
“At some stage of this trial the accused exhibited signs of pity and regret for the people she had offended. She acknowledged the pains the complainants are going through,” said the defence counsel.
He informed the judge that the convict had already served her sentence considering the period she had spent in prison and craved the indulgence of the judge to consider very seriously that fact.
“My Lord, she has children and ever since she was arrested and charged to court in 2011, she had been incarcerated at the female prison and her kids had not been taken care of,” he further stated.
However, Justice Sam Margai informed the court that the matter had to be adjourned to allow the State prosecution to address the court on what punishment was due to the convict.
She was returned to the female correctional centre at the former Special Court Detention Centre as she awaits her sentence on 7 December.