By Oladele Oguntimehin
George Uboh, who accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of diverting over N2 billion proceeds of recovered assets was, yesterday, convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment by Justice S. E. Aladetoyinbo of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja.
He was convicted for his role in converting property of the defunct Police Equipment Foundation (PEF) to his own use.
EFCC arraigned Uboh on a three-count charge which bordered on criminal breach of trust involving the sale of PEF vehicles.
He allegedly abused his position as former head of PEF Security and Communication department to convert properties of the foundation to his personal use sometime in 2007, in Abuja.
Uboh pleaded not guilty which set the stage for a full trial during which the prosecution called several witnesses to prove its case.
Uboh claimed that the PEF former national coordinator, Kenny Martins, gave him some PEF vehicles to offset the debt owed him by the foundation.
However, after cross-examination, Uboh admitted he did not have any evidence of transfer of ownership of the vehicles from PEF.
“I know the vehicles belong to PEF. But, they were to offset the debt owed me. The Hilux pickup vans were four and not five,” Uboh said.
Upon his conviction, Uboh, who runs a company called Panic Alert Security System (PASS), completes a double as a certified fraudster having previously been convicted of wire fraud in the United States of America.
He was prosecuted after US law enforcement agents carried out a major raid on a credit card and bank fraud ring led by Uboh in Georgia in 1992.
He came out of jail on January 16, 2001.
However, Justice Aladetoyinbo gave Uboh an option of N 4 million fine.