The Gwagwalada Division of the FCT High Court has sentenced 22-year-old student Ammar Mohammed to six months’ imprisonment for defrauding a foreigner of $850.

Delivering judgment, A. O Ebong warned him to desist from committing crimes and be of good behaviour while giving an option to pay a fine of N400,000.

The defence counsel, Richard Aneke, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy, saying that Mr Mohammed, upon arrest, confessed to the crime and immediately restituted the sum benefited, including the instrument an iPhone 12 Promax used for the crime.

He said Mr Mohammed honoured all the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invitations since he was granted administrative bail and was remorseful.

“Regarding sentencing, in a way of allocutus, the defendant’s circumstances are saddening and unfortunate. He is a young man of 22 years old and a student,” Mr Aneke explained. “He is the guardian of his younger brother, who is presently in primary three. The defendant’s mother died early, and his father is presently in Kano state married to another woman.”

He added, “His father has relinquished all his parent responsibility to the defendant.”

The prosecution counsel, Fadila Yusuf, told the court that Mr Mohammed and his counsel had entered and signed a plea bargain on November 12, 2021.

The EFCC charged the accused on one count of impersonation. The commission explained that the defendant sometimes, in August 2021, at Gwagwalada area council, did cheat by impersonation.

He pretended to be an American military personnel in Afghanistan named Mabry Andrew on Facebook and obtained $850 from a nurse named Lonnie, who lives in Georgia, U.S.

The offence, the EFCC said, contravened section 321 (b) of the Penal Code.

(NAN)