42-year-old driver implicated in N500,000 fraud case involving colleague

Joel Olumakinwa, a 42-year-old driver, was charged on Friday with cheating a coworker out of N500,000 in front of an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court.

Read Also: Client defrauded of N1.1m, businessman receives 17-month jail term

Olumakinwa, a resident of Ogba, Lagos, is accused of stealing and acquiring under false pretences.

Nonetheless, the accused entered a not guilty plea to the accusations that were filed against him.

Aguda, Ogba, Lagos is where the defendant committed the offences on August 9, 2023, according to the prosecutor, DSP Victor Eruada, who testified in court.

According to Eruada, the defendant got the money by pretending to sell his coworker, Mr. Oluwafemi Adedeji, who is the complainant, his Toyota Sienna with registration number AGL 626 FB.

He said that the defendant had agreed to sell the car for N1.2 million, but that the defendant had neglected to provide Adedeji the car after the latter had deposited N500,000 of the money. Instead, the defendant had sold the car to another person.

The prosecution went on to say that even after the defendant sold the car, he kept the money instead of giving it back to the complainant, using it for his own purposes.

He claims that the offences violate Lagos State’s 2015 Criminal Law Sections 314 and 287.

Olumakinwa was granted N450,000 bail by Magistrate Mrs. T.A. Oladele, along with two sureties in the same amount.

Oladele postponed the case’s mention until January 31.