Barrister arrested for duping friend

Juliana Francis

The Special Fraud Unit, (SFU), Milverton, Ikoyi, Lagos State has arrested one barrister Jude Umar who doubled as a legal practitioner and a car dealer to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians.

The suspect, barrister Umar was said to have collected a certain amount of money from his friend, with a promise to supply him a car. But rather than provide the car, Umar converted the money to his personal use and later stopped picking his friend’s calls, forcing the complainant (friend), to go to the police.

According to the Unit’s spokesperson, Ngozi Isintume-Agu, sometime in May 2013, the petitioner alleged that he met the suspect, barrister Jude Umar in Abuja who introduced himself as a car dealer and said he could assist him in getting a good car. 

The complainant stated that he indicated interest and parted with the sum of N1, 035,000 out of N1.2million requested by barrister Umar for Mercedes Benz ML 320 Jeep with the agreement that the balance would be paid at the point of delivery. 

The petitioner further stated that Umar convinced him to sell the only car he had to augment the money for the car. Umar however soon stopped picking his calls as soon as he collected the money.

Isintume-Agu said: “The suspect was arrested and he confessed to the crime. Jude Umar is a 40-year old Edo man who doubled as a legal practitioner and a car dealer under the company name Jetua International Services licensed to import vehicles. 

“He admitted that he used the complainant’s money to solve his financial needs and had only deposited the sum of N180, 000 in Cotonou for the said Jeep.  He also stated that his financial challenges were as a result of the seizure of his two vehicles by customs officials and as such he had used the complainant’s money to solve his problems.” 

Isintume-Agu further explained that Umar admitted that he treated his friend/colleague very badly and had used lies and delay tactics like sending of scanned pictures of the said vehicle with colour and chassis number which was a ruse and a way of buying time to know if he could get money and pay for the car which was still at Cotonou, Benin Republic.

“Investigation so far revealed that the suspect, had intention to defraud the complainant from the onset since the money he collected was diverted to other use rather than what it was meant for,” said Isintume-Agu. “He also forged some vehicle documents and purportedly issued a fake plate number “LAGOS DGL 724 CC” for the said vehicle just to deceive the complainant who was his school mate in University of Abuja. Investigation is on-going; suspect will be arraigned in court soonest to serve as a deterrent to others.”