A 24-year-old man, Tosin Michael, yesterday begged a Gudu Upper Area Court for mercy after admitting that he cheated one of his customers of his N170,000 to pay his wife’s dowry.
Michael told the court, shortly before his conviction, that he “mistakenly” used the said sum, meant for his customer’s aluminium windows, to pay his wife’s dowry.
He, however, told the court that he was currently handling a job for another of his customers and intended to refund the money to the former after he would have been paid.
The presiding judge, Alhaji Umar Kagarko, in his judgment, sentenced Michael to four weeks’ imprisonment with an option of N5,000 fine.
Kagarko said that he based his sentence on Section 112 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
The convict, a resident of Gauraka in Niger State, was sentenced after he had pleaded guilty to the two-count charge of criminal breach of trust and cheating.
He was also ordered to pay N170, 000 as compensation to the plaintiff.
NAN