The financial division High Court has convicted one Alvin Habib for 3 months and fined him 2000 penalty units for engaging in SIM box fraud.
According to the trial judge Justice Afia Serwaa S. Botchway, this is to serve as a deterrent for those who give their premises to be used for SIM box fraud activities.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ifzx6l8DjjburpIkvJPrS9u5Yg1MwKS3″]On January 16, 2015, a SIM box task force arrested Alvin Habib and Francis Abbey at Asafo in Kumasi where they were alleged to have mounted four SIM box equipment in their residence terminating international call traffic.
Speaking to Citi Business News after being sentenced, Alvin Habib said he was only a care taker of the equipment and knew next to nothing about the activities thereof.
“If they had gone in to really investigate about this whole thing, they will realise that communication doesn’t involve just one person and the real culprits are out there. I’m just a caretaker of the machines. I didn’t know they were SIM boxes until I was arrested,” he said.
Counsel for the accused Lawyer Vincent Akins told Citi News his client is only a victim of circumstances.
“That is the reason why I said our sentence is normal, I think that we did a yoo- man’s job by doing the trial and after he was convicted, we were able to impress upon the court, certain things that the court must take into consideration before sentencing him.”
He insisted that “I have always intimated to the court that he is a victim of circumstances, the main architects, those who are making the hell of money from this SIM box business are outside the country. They just come here to recruit innocent boys and pay them some paltry sum and then let them get into this trouble. So it’s unfortunate that the small boys are now facing the brawl of the law.”
Meanwhile, Alvin Habib’s accomplice, Francis Abbey was earlier acquitted and discharged by the same court.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana