The first prosecution witness (PW1), Urban
Lennartsson, a Swedish national, recently testified in the trial of one Bakary
Suso, accused of stealing a motor vehicle and obtaining money by false
pretence, before Magistrate Colley of the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court.
Urban told the court that he recognised the accused and could recall what happened on 23 February 2014.
He said that on the day in question, the accused persuaded him to buy a car for his girlfriend, Yandeh Trawally.
He bought the car, which was a Mercedes C220 Elegant, adding that he called Yandeh but she did not receive the call and he decided to sell the car again.
He told the court that he bought the car D240,000 and on the following day 24 February 2015, he and the accused met at the car dealer’s place, Ebrima Saidy, where he bought the car in Kotu and left the car at the car dealer’s parking place.
According to him, the accused, the car dealer and himself went to the accused’s restaurant where they made three documents.
The first was an agreement between him and the car dealer to sell the said car, the second document was an agreement between him and the accused that he (the accused) should take care of selling the car on his behalf and the car dealer received the money and sent it to his account within three days or the accused would bring the money to Sweden in April 2014, and the third was receipt of D30,000 paid to the accused on insurance, registration, tax certificate and all driving licences of the car.
He adduced that he went back to Sweden and continued to maintain contact with the accused through phone calls, facebook and SMS text.
The accused also had contact with his friend Camillia, who was the accused’s girlfriend, he said.
Urban further told the court that he came back to The Gambia in April 2014 to complete the sale of the car but he never finished, as the accused told him that there was a new customer and he had not shown up all the time.
When he went back to Sweden, the accused gave him a phone call on 30 April 2014, and told him that it would be better to send the car to Guinea Bissau to be sold where he would get more money.
He said the accused also told him that he wanted more money to take the car to Bissau and to put air conditioner in the car, and also go with his brother to Bissau.
He said that between 30 April and 14 May 2014, he made four transactions through Western Union directly to the accused amounting to D104,340 for the AC, mechanic and to go with his brother to Bissau, and he also wanted a lawyer to send the money to the complainant after he would have sold the car. He adduced that the car was not sold and he gave Linda D8,000 to get the car from the accused in Bissau and on 23 May 2014, the accused sent a picture of the car to his friend in Sweden telling them that the car was still around.
He explained that on 24 May 2014, Linda went to Kotu Police Station and the accused received D8,000 from Linda, adding that he received a lot of calls from Linda that the police said he had to return to The Gambia, which he did.
In July 2014, he went to the Major Crime Unit in Banjul, which took up the case, he said, adding that the accused did not show up until the police found him and took him to the Major Crime Unit in Banjul.
They made agreement with the accused that the accused should pay back all the monies, he said.
He told the court that he got back the D8,000 from the accused at the Major Crime Unit but the accused did not pay any more money.
He went back to Sweden and got a Gambian lawyer who made a new agreement with the accused that he should pay back the full amount of money and the accused agreed to pay D50,000 monthly, but never paid.
The case was adjourned till 18 June 2015.
