The Accra Circuit Court has handed a fifteen year prison sentence to Peter Claver Akuffo for his involvement in a large scale visa recruitment fraud. According to a Graphic Online report the convict was charged with defrauding by false pretenses after he failed to procure travel documents for eighteen people seeking to travel abroad. The court presided over by Judge Isaac Addo delivered the judgment after the prosecution established that the accused received significant sums of money under the guise of processing visas for countries including Canada and the United Kingdom.
A GhanaWeb report indicates that the total amount involved in the various transactions reached approximately 213230 Ghana Cedis. Prosecutors informed the court that the victims began making payments to the convict in 2022 with the expectation that their travel arrangements would be finalized within a specific timeframe. When the promised visas failed to materialize the victims requested their money back but the convict was unable to satisfy the demands despite several extensions granted by the authorities.
During the court proceedings it was revealed that the convict had previously been granted bail to allow him time to refund the money to his victims. According to a Citi Newsroom report the prosecution stated that Peter Claver Akuffo only managed to repay a small fraction of the total amount which led the court to proceed with the final sentencing. The presiding judge emphasized that the stiff sentence would serve as a deterrent to others involved in similar fraudulent recruitment schemes in the country.
The Ghana Police Service initiated the investigation following multiple petitions from the aggrieved individuals who claimed they had been misled by the convict. Court records show that the convict initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but the evidence presented by the prosecution proved sufficient for a conviction. The fifteen year sentence is to be served at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison as reported by various local news outlets including the Ghana News Agency.