Man Charged With Stealing 2,000 Credit Cards

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, 24 May 2007
Bernard Essuman, 22, has since 2005, succeeded in intercepting credit cards on the internet and using them to buy goods in shops, running into millions of dollars across Canada.

By that, he has been able to abuse about 2,000 credit cards and withdrawn 591,185 Canadian dollars.

He has been arrested by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court charged with one count of stealing.

When he appeared yesterday the court, presided over by Justice Frank Manu, did not take his plea and remanded him in police custody until June 5.

Presenting the preliminary facts, Dr. Gabriel Dzandu of the SFO, said in February, the office received intelligence report about Essuman’s activities from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

"Upon receipt of the report, the SFO put in place a system to track down Essuman and fortunately for us he was arrested on May 10, when he attempted to take delivery of some of the parcels."

He said Essuman’s modus operandi had been, changing his name from time to time using stolen credit cards to purchased goods for shipment to Ghana.

Essuman, according to the prosecution, told security agencies that he makes a living through the use of the internet by obtaining the stolen credit cards from Vietnam.

The prosecution said Essuman, upon receipt of the cards, purchased merchandised goods such as laptop computers, cameras, pen drives and other personal effects and linked up with his friends in Canada to ship the items to him in Ghana.

The prosecution further said Essuman used his photograph together with his brother’s name to make a passport in order to facilitate the deal.

When his home was searched, a laptop computer, a bank saving pass book and two mobile phones were found.