Azeez Adedeji, a Uber driver, was found guilty of attempting Point of Sale fraud and was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Chief Magistrate Court in Yaba, Lagos State, on Wednesday.
Magistrate Patrick Nwaka rendered the decision after considering the two counts of attempted fraud. Then the defendant decided to submit a plea bargain deal, which resulted in the charges being changed.
It was gathered by BrandSpur that on April 16, 2024, in the Oshodi Oke neighbourhood of Lagos State, Azeez conned a PoS operator named Titilope Adeyemi by claiming falsely that she needed to withdraw N30,000. He then dishonestly reduced the amount to N3,000, stealing N27,000.
The prosecution according to Thomas Nurudeen, this action violated Sections 287(d) and 314(1) of the Lagos State, 2015 Criminal Law.
Furthering, Azeez admitted guilt to the accusation. The prosecution’s attorney asked the judge to enforce the terms of the defendant’s agreed-upon plea deal in its entirety. As a result, Magistrate Nwaka ruled Azeez guilty and gave him an eight-year sentence that would be served concurrently beginning on the day of remand.
It was disclosed by the Nigeria local press release that Olaoluwa Ogbere and James Akomolafe were charged by the Yaba Magistrate Court earlier in March with stealing under false pretences from several PoS operators.
The defendants proceeded to Ketu’s Mile 12 Market pretending to check the balance on their accounts at a PoS stand. They took N662,000 from the account, diverted the operator’s attention, and replaced the machines with their own before disappearing.
