Court Sentences Businesswoman To 17 Years For N57.69m Fraud

Justice Ismail Ijelu of the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja has convicted and sentenced businesswoman Oluremi Phillips to 17 years in prison for defrauding an indigenous oil and gas firm, AYM Shafa Limited, of N57,690,000.

Justice Ijelu handed down the verdict after finding the convict and her company, Omritas Energy Limited, guilty of a five-count theft charge and issuing dud cheques totalling N57,690,000.

The conviction stems from the convicts fraudulently converting and stealing N57,690,000 belonging to AYM Shafa Limited for the supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO). They neither supplied the products nor returned the money to the victim.

They were first arraigned before Justice Sherifat Solebo of the same court on January 27, 2022. However, the trial could only be completed after Justice Solebo retired in November 2022, leading to the case being reassigned to Justice Ijelu.
On both occasions, the convicts had pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Some of the counts read: “Oluremi Ebun Phillips and Omritas Energy Limited, sometime in 2016, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently converted and stole the sum of N57,690,000.00, the property of AYM Shafa Limited, which was meant for the supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) that was never delivered.”

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“Oluremi Ebun Phillips and Omritas Energy Limited, on or about April 10, 2017, in Lagos, knowingly issued a cheque from Diamond Bank for the sum of N14,298,075.00 payable to AYM Shafa Limited, which was dishonoured due to insufficient funds in the account.”

During the trial, the prosecution, led by T.J. Banjo called three witnesses and submitted several documentary pieces of evidence to support their case. The defence also presented three witnesses.

In his judgment, the judge held that the prosecution had proven its case against the convicts beyond a reasonable doubt and convicted them on all five counts.