Teenager bags six months for $150 internet fraud

A Federal High Court in Ibadan on Wednesday  sentenced an 18-year-old university admission seeker, Oluwafemi Adam, to six months imprisonment for US$150 internet fraud.

Justice Uche Agomoh said that she convicted and sentenced Adam based on evidence before her as well as his plea bargain agreement with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Agomoh held that the convict did not waste the time and resources of the court.

“I have considered the provisions of Section 270 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, which stipulates that someone who enters a plea bargain agreement should be given a reduced sentence.

“In addition, the convict has shown enough remorse and promised to turn a new leaf.

“He is, therefore, sentenced to six months in prison. The custodial sentence starts from the date he was first arrested,” the judge held.

Agomoh ordered that Adam should write an undertaking to the EFCC, upon completion of his jail term, to be of good behaviour.

“The proceeds of crime found in his possession are forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria,” Agomoh held.

EFCC counsel,  Mr Mabas Maburb, had noted  that Adam was arraigned on a count charge.

Maburb said that the agency’s detectives arrested the convict on Sept. 17, 2021, at his hideout in Ibadan.

He said that Adam specialised in deceiving foreigners and collecting U.S. dollars from them.

According to him, several fraudulent documents were printed out from Adam’s fictitious email boxes.

The EFCC counsel said that US$150 and a mobile phone were found in Adam’s possession.

Maburb said that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 22B of the Cyber Crime Prohibition and Prevention Act, 2015.

Adam had prayed the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing him, saying that he was hoping to gain admission into the Federal University of Technology Akure.