Former GREDA boss remanded for alleged SIM box fraud
The Accra Magistrate Court yesterday remanded the former President of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), Alexander Kofi Tweneboah, in police custody for his alleged involvement in SIM box fraud.
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The action of the court is to allow the police more time to complete their investigations into the case.
The prosecutor, Chief Inspector Kwesi Senchar, told the court that the police were still investigating the case and needed more time to complete their investigations.
He, therefore, prayed the court, presided over by Mr Worlanyo Kotoku, to remand the accused person.
However, the lead counsel for the accused, Mr Fiifi Abban, told the court that the prosecutor had refused to take the plea of his client since his first appearance before the court on January 29, 2015.
He stated that the defence team was not surprised at the deliberate delay in investigations by the police.
According to him, while investigations into the alleged fraud had not been completed, the police had held a press conference and paraded his client before the media.
Meanwhile, five of his accomplices were also yesterday remanded by the Magistrate Court for their involvement in the fraud incident.
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They also had their plea not taken and are to reappear before the courts on February 13, 2015.
Infringement on basic rights
“They had deliberately incarcerated our client for the past 15 days since his arrest and this infringes upon his basic rights,” he told the court.
According to him, Tweneboah was a responsible man who was prepared to co-operate and assist the police in their investigations, saying that “He was the one who went to the police station upon invitation”.
He stated that he was granted self-recognisance bail, adding that “He will not interfere with investigation when he is granted bail.”
He, therefore, prayed the court to grant him bail, especially as the offence he had been charged with was a bailable one.
The court, however, remanded him to reappear before it on February 9, 2015.
Background
The facts are that an operation to clamp down on illegal SIM box operators led to the arrest of six persons, including the former President of the GREDA.
The activities of Tweneboah and the other alleged SIM box fraudsters were said to have cost the nation $33,592,320 or GH¢107,495,000 in revenue between the period of five and seven months.
The operation also led to the seizure of thousands of SIM cards from the suspects, including 21,232 recovered from one operator alone.
The other suspects are Ebenezer Boateng, Victor Owusu, Kwadwo Asare, Alvin Habib and Francis Abbey.
They have been arraigned on two counts of illegal termination and operation of telecommunications without authority under the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772) and remanded into police custody pending further investigations.
The clampdown by the joint Anti-Telecom Fraud Task Force was described as the biggest and most successful in the fight against illegal SIM box operators.
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He and the other fraudsters operated the SIM box, which is a setup in which fraudsters install SIM boxes with multiple low-cost prepaid SIM cards.
The task force was made up of detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters in Accra and officials from the National Communications Authority (NCA) and telecom service operators, with technical support from Subah Info Solutions Ghana Limited.
The operations were carried out in Accra, Tema, Kumasi, Koforidua and Batsonaa between January 10 and 16, 2015.