An Accra Circuit Court has ordered a 28-year-old marketing officer to produce a Ghanaian Passport he took from a teacher before he would be granted bail. Mark Osei Brown, the accused, allegedly collected 4,700 Ghana cedis from Mr Dickson Abosti, the teacher, under the pretext of securing Abosti an American visa but rather went into hiding. The court presided over by Mrs. Patience Mills Tetteh asked the accused to produce the passport in order to be granted bail. The trial judge contended that some people were using Ghanaian passports for numerous illegal means, causing untold hardship on Ghanaians when they travel outside the country. Mrs. Tetteh said passports, was a national property, and people who travel with it represented the State, adding "in the advent of the incident of the 23-year-old Nigerian, Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up a North West Airline Flight 253 from Amsterdam, Holland to Detroit in the USA on Christmas Day, we needed to be vigilant on the use of Ghanaian passports". Brown had pleaded not guilty to defrauding by false pretences and was remanded into police custody. His counsel, Mr Samuel Ofori, contended that if his client was remanded it would be difficult for him to produce the passport, explaining that the passport was with the second party whom his client was finding difficult to locate. Mr Ofori said they had paid GHC900 cedis as part payment and would endeavour to produce the person who received the money to acquire the visa. Prosecuting, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mary Agbozo said sometime in August 2008, Brown introduced himself as a visa contractor and the complainant Mr Abosti expressed interest in travelling to the USA. During the transaction, Brown collected GHC4, 700 and a Ghanaian passport number H2107654 from the complainant and went into hiding. On August 26, 2009 the accused was arrested and during interrogation admitted the offence. Brown is expected to re-appear before court in two weeks. Source: GNA