Dar es Salaam: Man jailed 15 years for forgery, impersonation

Written by Faustine Kapama.

THE Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam sentenced to 15 years in jail Goodluck Mtobesya after it found him guilty of conning a businesswoman, Roziki Joseph, out of 80m/- in a transaction involving the sale of a plot.

Resident Magistrate Victoria Nongwa also ordered the convict to refund Roziki the Said amount after completing serving the sentence. She convicted Mtobesya of conspiracy to commit an offence, forgery, uttering false documents, impersonation and obtaining money by false pretences.

The magistrate sentenced the convict to serve three years in jail for each count, but he will remain behind bars for only three years as the sentences, according to the magistrate, will run concurrently.

Three other people were also convicted along with Mtobesya of conspiracy and obtaining money by false pretences, but the magistrate imposed different sentences against them, depending on the degree of their participation in the commission of the offences.

They are Athman Omary Ntiti, Evarist Ernest Ngalya and Msafiri Hassan Mkumba. The magistrate gave an alternative sentence of three years in jail or a 500,000/- fine to Ntiti and Ngalya for conspiracy, while Ntiti was given an additional jail term of six months or pay a 100,000/- fine for conning the woman.

Mkumba was convicted of only one count of obtaining money fraudulently, but was given a suspended sentence because his participation in the commission of the offence was just to receive a portion of the money which was fraudulently obtained from Riziki.

Passing sentence, the magistrate said the prosecution, through its ten witnesses, had sufficiently proved beyond reasonable doubt that the convicts participated in one way or another in the commission of the offences. The prosecution, led by State Attorney Leonard Chalo, had told the court that at an unknown place in Dar es Salaam in July2011, all the accused conspired to defraud the businesswoman, Riziki Joseph.

The court was told that on July 29, 2011, Mtobesya forged a certificate of occupancy purported to be title deed number 48625. The certificate, according to the prosecution, was in reference to a plot number 726 Block G in Mbezi medium density area.

The accused purported to show that the document had been issued by the Commissioner for Lands while they knew it was false. The prosecution had alleged further that on the same day at Mnazi Mmoja in Ilala District, Mtobesya falsely presented himself to advocate Georgina Mulebya to be James Joseph Matata and assured her that the property on the plot in question was his matrimonial asset, which was untrue.

According to the prosecution, on the same day at the advocate’s office, Mtobesya presented the certificate of occupancy and later obtained 80m/- from Riziki being payment for sale of the plot by pretending that he was James Matata, husband of Monica James Matata, owner of the plot.

Source: Daily News (03/05/2013): http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/local-news/17008-man-jailed-15-years-for-forgery-impersonation