Judiciary auctioneer charged with fraud

Reported by Lawrence Ng’ang’a

A judiciary auctioneer has today (Tuesday) been charged in a Kwale Court with defrauding a lawyer.

Joel Titus Muasya was charged under Section 283 (C) of the penal code for defrauding Mr Goerge Mungai, a former State Prosecutor at the Kwale Court, of a sum of Ksh5oo,ooo on February 15, 2017 at Umbi Plaza in Kwale.

It is believed that the accused was entrusted property worth Ksh500,000 by the judiciary to deliver to the complainant, George Mungai.

Appearing before Kwale Resident Magistrate Betty Koech, Mr Muasya, through his lawyer Jack Matheka, pleaded not guilty to the charges laid against him after an argument between him and State Prosecutor Timothy Musyoki.

Matheka had argued that Mr Muasya being a court officer and licensed auctioneer, he is not supposed to take plea.

“I oppose the suspect taking a plea for the reasons that he is a court officer, being a licensed auctioneer. He was to get Ksh1.484, 944 for the debtor. There is a warrant of attachment that is still valid up to April 6, 2017. The court should determine whether there is action against the accused,” argued Matheka.

On his part, the state prosecutor said that the court was acting in accordance with the law to prosecute any suspect and asked the court to proceed with the plea.

“Your honour, the decision to prosecute is arrived at by the DPP by taking into consideration the evidentially threshold to file the case in court and whether public interest will be served. We considered the two and found that the case was prosecutable,” said Mr Musyoki.

The resident magistrate ordered that the accused pay a bond of Ksh1 million and a surety of the same amount or cash bail of Ksh200,000 to secure his release to continue with the case while out of custody.

The case will be mentioned on March 29, 2017 and heard on the 24th of April 2017.

Written by Majanga Michael