A TWENTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD Barama employee of Lot 5 Cumberland, East Canje, Berbice was Tuesday sentenced to two years’ imprisonment by Magistrate Ann McLennan on a false pretence charge after he had played the role of a con artist. Oswin Lewis pleaded guilty to the offence that said on March 17 at Georgetown, with intent to defraud, he obtained from Marvin Watts the sum of $92,000 by falsely pretending that Danny Sankar, a cambio dealer, had authorised him to collect the money from Watts to repair a generator for Sankar, knowing same to be false.
Police Corporal Dinero Jones, prosecuting, said Watts and Lewis are known to each other. On that day he visited the virtual complainant’s workplace at the Stabroek Market, Georgetown, and gave him a sealed envelope and told him it contained US$7,000.
The prosecutor said the defendant told the VC to deliver same to Sankar in Berbice, a person the VC knew.
He said Lewis then called someone on his cellular phone in the presence of Watts and claimed that Sankar instructed him to collect the money to repair the generator. He was given $92,000 and after the VC met with Sankar in Berbice, he was told that Sankar never made any such call. The envelope was then opened in the presence of Watts and it contained GYD$20 and pieces of paper.
The unrepresented man said he resides with his uncle in Georgetown at the Prison Officer’s quarters.
Lewis was reluctant to stand in the dock and constantly interrupted the court while the prosecution was speaking. He was also grumbling while Jones was relating the facts and when told by the magistrate to stand, he complained of not feeling well.
According to the prisoner, he was willing to repay the money to the VC, making part payments, but he said Watts refused to accept the payment arrangement.
Lewis told the court that he gave the money he had collected to someone called Steve Bacchus, the person who had given him the envelope to deliver.