A conman associated with gold scammer Jared Otieno has been been sentenced to one year in jail for defrauding an Australian national in a fake gold scam
Kevin Obia who also goes by the aliases Kevin Kleigh aka The Don conned the Australian of Sh14 million.
Obia was on Wednesday found guilty of defrauding one Christian Gallati on the pretext of selling him seven kilograms of gold.
Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi handed the accused a one-year prison sentence or pay a fine of Sh300,000.
Obia was charged with obtaining Sh13.7 million (€127,000) from Mr Gallati at Hilton Hotel, Nairobi on May 1st, 2015 by falsely pretending he was in a position to sell him 7kgs of gold.
In his ruling, magistrate Andayi stated that there was a bigger person behind the said scam, Jared Otieno.
“Jared Otieno is still at large and they have failed to arrest him,” the magistrate noted.
The court declared that the complainant did not suffer any loss as he was engaging in gold business without pre-requisite certificates and licenses as required by law.
The magistrate ordered that the exhibits be destroyed.
The accused is also facing a second count of attempting to defraud Mr Gallati $570,000 (Sh54.1million) on May 18, 2015 claiming he was in a position to sell him 13kg of gold.
Mr Obia, who gave a sworn defence, told the court that he was framed by the police and that he knows nothing about the fake gold trade.
Mr Obia said the officers who arrested him took him to the Central Police Station where they charged him with the current offences.
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