An Abeokuta Magistrates’ Court in Ogun State on Friday sentenced a 55-year-old man, Benjamin Adegbola, to three years imprisonment for defrauding two families of N2.5 million in pretence to obtain a land survey plan for them.
The fake Surveyor was convicted on a three-count charge of stealing, fraud and obtaining under false pretence.
The Magistrate, S. S Shotayo, said that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty as charged.
Shotayo, however, sentenced Adegbola, who pleaded not guilty, to two years for the first count, one year for the second count and three years for the third count, adding that the sentence would run concurrently.
He also gave an option to the convict to refund N1.7 million to Oke Odebija and Todeuke or serve the jail sentence.
Earlier, during the trial, the Prosecutor, Inspector Evelyn Motim, told the court that the convict committed the offence between March 2020 and August 2021 at Oke-Ilewo area in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
According Motim, the convict falsely presented himself as a registered Surveyor and fraudulently obtained the sum of N2.5 million from the families of Viadinu Todeuke and Oke Odebija
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She said the convict collected the money in pretence to secure a registered land survey plan for the two families, which he failed to do and could not refund the money.
She added that the convict collected the money and converted it to his personal use.
She said the offence contravened Section 484, 390(9) and 419 of the Criminal Code Laws of Ogun, 2006.