Man who sold stones as phones appears in court

A mobile phone dealer, who allegedly pack­aged broken stones as original mobile phones, and sold to customers, appeared before the Accra Circuit Court, on Monday and charged with defrauding by false pretence.

Mustapha Hamidu, also known as, Abulley, a resident of Odorkor, was arrested by the police on De­cember 22, last year, after victims reported his activities to the police.

The plea of suspect was not taken when he appeared before Mr Obiri Yeboah, the presiding judge of Circuit Court “six”.

Prosecuting, Chief Inspector of Police, Samuel Ahiabor told the court that the accused was in the business of swindling unsuspect­ing victims, by showing them original phones only to change it with packaged broken tiles, after a bargain had been agreed.

He said the victims only found out that what they paid for was stones when they got home.

Chief Insp. Ahiabor said the police investigated the matter and arrested Hamidu on December 22 along a section of Achimota overpass, with an original Tecno Camon 19 cellular in a phone cover and two similar phone cov­ers all packaged with broken tiles, trying to sell to victims between GH¢500 and GH¢1,000.

The policeman told the court that when the accused was arrest­ed, the two other phones packaged with broken tiles were found on him.

Chief Insp. Ahiabor said the accused was detained in police custody as efforts were being made to arrest other accomplic­es, currently at large.