The Buganda Road Chief Magistrates court in Kampala has convicted and fined a city lawyer shs25 million and sentenced two land brokers to 10 years imprisonment after being convicted of fraud involving land worth shs330 million.
The court also directed each of the two brokers to compensate the victim of their fraud to a tune of shs100 million.
"The fraud has a psychological effect on the victim but also the convicts lacked any remorsefulness but rather exhibited negative courage since 2019(when case came to court) by being courageous and very confident. There is need to tame this crime of fraud which is now rampant in Kampala and its surroundings," Chief Magistrate Sarah Tusiime said.
The case
The convicts include lawyer Kenneth Kwesiga Bateyo, 65 from Kwesiga Bateyo and Company Advocates, Ssalongo Kaggwa George William, 64 and Chrispus Ssali, 41.
These were convicted of obtaining money by false pretence, forgery of a sales agreement, procuring the execution of documents by false pretence, and conspiracy to commit a felony.
Prosecution led by senior state attorney Timothy Amerit told court that in 2019, the trio together with Irene Acheng( already serving 8 year jail term over the same case) presented a false sales agreement for a piece of land in Lubowa, Wakiso district measuring 0.57 hectares with a forged land title that they sold to one Rashid Ndawula at shs330 million.
In the deal, the two brokers fronted Acheng as the land lord whereas the lawyer was the one who prepared the sales agreement for a fee of shs50 million.
On Wednesday, the trial magistrate said that all evidence proves that the trio together with Acheng were part of the scheme that defrauded Ndawula of his ssh330 million in a bogus land sale deal.
She therefore sentenced the two land brokers to 2 years imprisonment and shs2 million fine to the lawyer for procuring execution of documents by false pretence, the same punishments to the trio for conspiracy to commit a felony and uttering of a false document.
The magistrate also sentenced the two land brokers to two years imprisonment and shs3 million fine to the lawyer for making a false document , the same punishments to the trio for conspiracy to commit a felony, two years for the land brokers for forgery and a shs2 million fine to the lawyer over the same offence.
The trial magistrate also sentenced the two land brokers to two years imprisonment and shs3 million fine for the lawyer for conspiracy to commit a felony as well as 10 years imprisonment for each of the two brokers for forgery of a land title.
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The court however acquitted the lawyer of this charge.
The two land brokers were also sentenced to a three-year imprisonment each for conspiracy to commit a felony and another three year jail term for uttering a false document whereas the lawyer was fined to a tune of shs5 million over this offence.
The magistrate also jailed each of the two land brokers for five years for obtaining money by false pretence whereas the lawyer was fined to a tune of shs5 million for this offence.
The two land brokers were also jailed for three years for making a false document but also ordered to pay shs100 million each to the victim, Ndawula.
"The three convicts said in mitigation that they are bread winners for their families but didn't respect themselves as heads of basic units of society by abusing this position. For the lawyer, the public expects that he conducts himself according to his profession but he broke this trust," the chief magistrate said.
The magistrate said the punishments are to run concurrently and to this, the two land brokers are to serve the biggest punishment of 10 years imprisonment whereas the lawyer is to pay a total of shs25 million in fine.
Earlier, the magistrate had thrown out a request by Bateyo's lawyer who said she didn't have jurisdiction to sentence them since she has now been appointed as an acting deputy registrar of the High Court.
Tusiime said there is nothing wrong with her giving a sentence in a case she handled from the beginning.
