‘American prostitute’ bags one year imprisonment for internet fraud

The Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin has sentenced 20-year-old Oyelowo Mayowa Fawas to 12 months imprisonment for offences bordering on cybercrime and possession of fraudulent funds.

Oyelowo, who hails from Atiba Local Government Area of Oyo State, was sentenced by Justice Mahmud Abdulgafar on Friday.

The defendant was prosecuted on two counts proffered against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

According to EFCC, the defendant among others things, disguised as a white female professional prostitute in the United States of America to swindle his unsuspecting victims of various sums before he was arrested by the operatives of the anti-graft agency.

The second count charge read: “That you, Oyelowo Mayowa Fawas, sometime between the months of June 2020 to June 2021 in Ilorin, Kwara State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did knowingly have under your control, the sum of N57,837,710 being paid to your Access Bank, Account Number 0804708906, reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 319A of the Penal Code’’.

The defendant pleaded guilty when the charges were read to him.

Following his plea, the EFCC counsel, Innocent Mbachie, called a witness, Udo Iniubong, an operative of the Commission to review the facts of the case.

The witness told the court how credible intelligence led to the arrest of the defendant in the Malete area of Kwara State.

The extra-judicial statements of the defendant, iPhones, and a laptop recovered from him at the point of arrest were tendered and admitted in evidence.

In his judgement, Justice Abdulgafar found Oyelowo guilty of the two counts and sentenced him to six months imprisonment on each count with an option of N100,000 fine on each count.

The presiding judge further ordered that the phones and a laptop used to perpetrate the crime and the sum of $700 raised as restitution by the defendant be forfeited to the Federal Government.

TheStar