Man sentenced to community service for romance scam

 

IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – A Domestic Violence and Special Offences  Court  sitting in Ikeja today sentenced   37-year-old Amos Ebadamioria to one year imprisonment with the option of a 100-hour community service for his involvement in romance  scams.

Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe sentenced him following his guilty  plea to possessing fraudulent documents which he got from running online dating scams contrary to Section 320 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.

Counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,  (EFCC),  I. G. Akpan, told the court that operatives of the commission arrested the defendant at Abule-Egba after they acted on an intelligence report on September 19, 2023.

Akpan told the court that the EFCC retrieved an iPhone 6 plus from the convict upon his arrest, and during analysis of his phone and found fraudulent documents in which Ebadamioria represented himself as a female and received money.

Counsel to the EFCC told the court that the defendant offered a statement while in custody and acknowledged the fraudulent documents found in his phone.

Akpan presented copies of the statement of the convict and his iPhone 6 plus to the judge to enter into evidence and asked her to convict the defendant.

Abike-Fadipe entered the exhibits into evidence. Abike-Fadipe convicted Ebadamioria of possessing documents containing false pretence, contrary to Section 320 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State. The convict pleaded with the court to have mercy on him.

Ebadamioria told the court he committed the crime because he had an accident and lost his job.

“I am a changed man,” Ebadamioria said. The defence counsel, Melvin Obadan, by way of allocutus, told the court that the convict was remorseful.

Obadan said, “He (Ebadamioria) is the breadwinner of his family. We ask the court for custodial sentencing and to grant him an option of fine.”

Abike-Fadipe said, “I have heard the convict say he had an accident and lost his job for which he engaged in cybercrime after three years. But he is a mature person and should have known better,” the judge added.

Abike-Fadipe said, “I sentence the convict to one year in prison with an option of a 100-hours of community service. On any day he misses the hour of community service, he shall serve out the remainder of the time in a custodial centre.”

The judge said the convict would also forfeit his iPhone 6 plus which he used to commit the crime to the Federal Government of Nigeria.