The accused was charged with the offence of fraudulent conversion, contrary to Section (20) Sub Section (1) of the larceny act of the laws of Sierra Leone, and the particulars of the offence stated that the accused converted to his personal use and benefit, large quantity of fish product entrusted to him by a certain Mohamed Kamara, for onward presentation to the complainant Samura Sankoun.
The charged sheet disclosed that the accused committed the said offence between 20 August 2016 and 17 September 2016, at a town called Yeleboya in the Kambia judicial district, in the northern province of the republic of Sierra Leone, as he fraudulently converted to his own use and benefit forty million leones worth of the said fish products.
In his testimony before Magistrate, Dr. Abubakar Binneh Kamara, the final and formal prosecution witness, Mohamed Jusu testified that he was a detective police constable, and was attached to the Criminal Investigation Department Headquarter on Pademba road in Freetown.
Detective police constable Mohamed Jusu informed the court that he recognized both the accused, Uamru Sillah and the complainant, Samura Sankoun, and he could vividly recollect the incident of 8 February 2017.
He furthered that on the aforementioned date, he was on duty at the Criminal Investigation Department Headquarter on Pademba road in Freetown, when the complainant went and reported a case of fraudulent conversion against the accused person.
The witness also testified that on 9 February 2017, police constable M. Thorley including him contemporaneously interviewed the accused by observing the judge rule, and the accused validated his statement by appending his signature to the statement as he was in custody of the police.
The said statement was produced and tendered in evidence, as part of the court records in respect of the matter before court, and his co investigator, police constable Thorley M signed as the witness, whiles he signed as a recorder.
He concluded his testimony by stating that on 15 February 2017, he together with his co investigator charged the accused, Umar Sillah with the offence of fraudulent conversion, contrary the larceny act of 1916, of the country’s laws.
The accused had been granted bail in the sum of eighty million leones in like sum and should produced one surety, including one title deed and surety must be a residential citizen in the western area of the Republic of Sierra Leone, and bail to be approved by the Master and Registrar of the court.
