Court Sentences Man To One Year Jail Term For Romance Scam

Justice C. J. Aneke of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has convicted and sentenced a man, identified as Solomon Martins to one year imprisonment for romance scam.

It was gathered that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission disclosed this in a statement shared on its Facebook page on Sunday.

The commission stated that Martins was arraigned by its Lagos Zonal Command on a two-count charge.

The charge reads: “That you, Solomon Martins on or about the 1st day of December, 2022, in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to gain advantage for yourself, fraudulently impersonated one ‘John Scott’ white military male from London, United Kingdom, by holding yourself out as such to unsuspecting members of the public via Gmail correspondence and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 22(2)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015.”

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However, Solomon was said to have pleaded guilty to the charges when they were read to him.

He was, therefore, sentenced to one year imprisonment, with an option of fine of N1,500,000 and 100 hours community service.

The judge ordered that his mobile phone and bank draft of N100,000 be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.