Noah Donkor, a 24-year-old man, who posed as a police officer, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment in hard labour by a Sogakope Circuit Court in the Volta Region.

He was defrauding people of huge sums of money with the intent to aid their recruitment into the Police Service.

Police Inspector Joseph Ajongba, prosecuting, told the court, presided over by Mr Isaac Addo, that the police at Akatsi had been inundated with reports from the public about the dubious activities of the convict.

Donkor claimed he was a police officer and stationed at Abor but resided at Akatsi, he said.

He said the police then activated intelligence on the dubious activities of the convict, who was spotted on social media wearing a police uniform and in other instances, verbally informing people of helping them to be recruited into the Police Service.

Inspector Ajongba said the police, who had kept surveillance on Donkor, arrested him on October 12 at in his hideout at Dzogadze, a community in the Akatsi South Municipality.

Items retrieved from his room included different passport photographs suspected to be those of his victims, documents bearing police letterheads, and some police accoutrements.

The convict was later arraigned before a Sogakope Circuit court on October 18, with charges including defrauding, defrauding by false pretences, and unlawful possession of police accoutrements.

The court subsequently remanded the convict into Police Custody.

On Tuesday, November 2, the convict, during an appearance at the court, pleaded guilty to defrauding a victim of Gh₵2,600.00 and pleaded not guilty to the other charges.

The court convicted him on his own plea to serve a prison term of five years in hard labour.

Meanwhile, he will reappear on December 22 for the other charges.