Female ‘One Chance’ fraudster arraigned for duping woman N.4m

The Police at the Ikoyi Division, Lagos have arrested a suspected female ‘one chance’ fraudster, Gloria Anthony, 22, and arraigned her before a Lagos Magistrates’ Court for allegedly defrauding a woman of N410,000.

She and others still at large picked the woman as a passenger with their unpainted cab and obtained N410,000 from her under false pretence and escaped.

A Police source alleged that trouble started for Gloria on 15 June, 2020 when she acted as a passenger inside the cab driven by her accomplices now at large and picked the complainant along the Gerald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos as a passenger enroute Obalende.

Gloria allegedly started crying inside the cab the moment her cab picked the complainant that the goods she imported was wasting away at the Tin Can Island Port due to lack of money to clear them.

She was alleged to have pleaded with everybody inside the car that if anyone could help her to clear the goods, she would sell the goods to the person at cheaper price.

Unknown to the complainant that she was her target, as others inside the car were her members, the complainant out of pity allegedly promised to help her financially to clear the goods and she allegedly took her to a nearby bank to withdraw the sum of N223,000 for her to clear the goods with the intention to buy the goods from the suspect unknown to her that she was a suspected fraudster.

The suspect, it was learnt on the same day called the complainant again that the money she gave her was not enough to clear the goods and that the clearing agents and the Customs officials assured her that the goods would be release if she could pay another N200,000 and the complainant again allegedly transferred the sum of N190,000 into the suspect’s Guaranty Trust Bank account.

Police alleged that after Gloria withdrew the money, she switched off her phones and disappeared.

When the complainant waited for days for the woman to bring the goods for her to buy and her phone was no longer going, it dawn on her that she had been duped and reported the incident to the DPO of Ikoyi Division, CSP Mustapha N’abba who directed his men to hunt down the suspect.

The Police tracked and arrested the woman at a hideout in Lagos after days of manhunt.

During investigation, according to the Police, Gloria allegedly confessed to the crime that she and others now on the run had been duping innocent passengers for long with cab in Ikoyi as they pretended to be passengers inside the car like other cab operators plying the area.

Gloria was charged before the Igbosere Chief Magistrates’ Court, Lagos on a four-count charge of felony to wit fraud and stealing.

Police Counsel, Inspector Mawari Solomon informed the Court in charged No F/11/2020 that the accused committed the offence at Lugard area of Ikoyi, Lagos at about 9.45 am on 15 June, 2020.

Solomon told the Court that the accused and others still at large picked the complainant as a passenger with their operational unpainted cab and collected the sum of N410,000 from her on the pretext to supply her non-existent goods, but that the accused converted the money to her use and escaped before she was arrested.

He said the offences, the accused committed were punishable under sections 411, 322, 325 and 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the alleged offence and Magistrate A.T Omoyele granted her bail in the sum of N150,000 with two sureties in like sum.

Omoyele adjourned the case till 3 August, 2020 for mention and ordered that the defendant be kept at the Ikoyi Police Division till she perfected the bail conditions.