Court sends businesswoman to jail for swindling ₦57.6 million from AYM Shafa
Justice I.O. Ijelu of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, has sentenced businesswoman Oluremi Phillips to 17 years in prison for defrauding AYM Shafa Limited of ₦57,690,000.
The conviction follows a lengthy trial highlighting charges of theft and issuing dud cheques.
According to Dele Oyewale, Head of Media and Publicity for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Phillips was first arraigned on January 27, 2022, before Justice S.O. Solebo of the Special Offences Court in Ikeja.
The case was reassigned to Justice Ijelu in November 2022 after Justice Solebo’s retirement.
“She was, on May 22, 2023, re-arraigned before Justice Ijelu alongside her company, Omritas Energy Limited, on a five-count charge bordering on stealing and issuance of dud cheques to the tune of ₦57,690,000,” Oyewale said.
One of the charges reads:
“Oluremi Ebun Phillips and Omritas Energy Limited, sometime in 2016, at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently converted and stole the sum of ₦57,690,000.00, property of AYM Shafa Limited, meant for the supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), which you failed to supply.”
Delivering judgment, Justice Ijelu stated that the prosecution had proven the case beyond reasonable doubt and convicted the defendants on all five counts.
The court sentenced Phillips to nine years for the first count, with an option of a ₦2 million fine, and two years each on the other counts, to run concurrently.
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Omritas Energy Limited was fined, and both defendants were ordered to pay restitution of ₦57,690,000 to the victim within 90 days or face further penalties, including the company being wound up.
“The convicts fraudulently converted and stole ₦57,690,000 meant for the supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO). They neither supplied the products nor returned the money to the victim,” Oyewale explained.
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