Busayo Ayedun, a 24-year-old undergraduate at the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, is on trial in Yaba Magistrate Court for allegedly defrauding a company, CD Care Limited, of goods and cash worth over N900,000 in the state.
The defendant is charged with deliberate and unlawful conspiracy, felony, defrauding, deceit, pretence, stealing, forgery, and false representation, among other things.
The accused committed the crime between July 10, 2021 and October 31, 2021, according to the police prosecutor, Inspector Godwin Oriabure, in the Fadeyi area of the state.
The charges read in part, “That you, Busayo Ayedun, and others at large, between July 10, 2021 and October 31, 2022, between 8am to 6pm at Adenike Street, Fadeyi, Lagos State, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did deliberately and unlawfully conspired among yourselves to deceive and defraud CD Care Limited of goods valued at N911,709, 84.”
Narrating how the crime was committed, the prosecutor’s witness, a sales agent in the company, Oluwatobi Odukoya, told the court that Ayedun, on the said dates, ordered a Samsung Galaxy A12, an iPhone 12 mini, a Binatone standing fan all worth N638,706,000 online.
Odukoya said Ayedun also requested a refund of a claimed payment that she made to the company and got the refund worth N273,003,81.
He added that it was discovered that Ayedun ordered all the items using three different names which were, Wahab Adeyemo, Ayedun Ibiyemi, and Shoberu Michael.
After the company found out that it had been defrauded and that all the payments Ayedun claimed to have made with bank statements and payment receipts were false, Odukoya said she was contacted via phone calls and Whatsapp messages to come within the space of three months to clarify the misconception.
Odukoya said Ayedun did not show up, adding that the company reported to the police who arrested her and retrieved one of the phones.
In her defense, Ayedun said she paid some of the money using her roommate’s point of sale machine, adding that all the details were in the phone retrieved by the police.
She added, “I live in school in Ikorodu with my roommate. My school is Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu.”
The Chief Magistrate, O. A. Salawu ordered accused to retrieve evidence of payment from her roommate’s PoS machine with dates and present them before the court during the next trial.
Salawu adjourned the case till January 26, 2023 for cross examination and continuation of trial.