A final year student of the Institute of Management Technology, (IMT), Enugu, Okoro Tochukwu Joseph, has been sentenced to eight months imprisonment for impersonation and obtaining by false pretence, the sum of $15,000 (Fifteen thousand US dollars).
This was sequel to his prosecution by the Enugu Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
According to a press statement issued by Wilson Uwujaren, head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC on Tuesday, the judgement was handed down by Justice Rosemary Dugbo Oghoghorie of the Federal High Court, Enugu.
The statement explained that one of the five-count charges against Joseph read, “That you, Okoro Tochukwu Joseph (alias Donald Wood), on the 11th day of March, 2020, in Enugu, Enugu State, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, while representing yourself to be Donald Wood, a financial investor in crypto currency, by means of a computer system, knowingly sent a message through your Hangout, knowing the same to be false, for the purpose of causing needless anxiety to Lisa Spitler and thereby committed an offence, contrary to and punishable under Section 24 (b) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015.”
“He pleaded guilty to the charges, upon his arraignment today, following which prosecution counsel, Henry Onyekachi Anasoh asked the court to convict and sentence him accordingly,” the statement added.
Aside the prison term, the convict is to restitute the sum of $15,000 (Fifteen Thousand US Dollars) to his victim, through the EFCC.
Joseph had impersonated Donald Woods and Kennedy Lordan and used pictures of white men to create fraudulent Hangout and Instagram accounts which he used to defraud an American woman, Lisa Spitler of the said sum.