An April Fool’s Day prank cost a 66-year-old man a fine of $25,000 with an alternative of 18 months imprisonment after he falsely reported that gunmen had been robbed him of $2.4 million.
In the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday, Alley Mohamed pleaded guilty when he was charged with giving information orally and in writing which he knew to be false.
Mohamed told Principal Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle that he was “fooled around” earlier in the day when he went to the post office to uplift his tax identification number (TIN) and that was why he “fooled” the police later in the same day.
Mohamed of 208 Mon Repos North said that he had initially gone to the police on April 1 to report harassment at the post office. Instead, he told Police Constable Kempton De Young that he was robbed outside Scotia Bank of $2.4 million. He gave descriptions of the supposed gunmen and the direction in which the men had gone off with his money. Police patrol vehicles were dispatched to the “scene of the robbery” and officers even went into the bank to question employees and customers only to find out that Mohamed did not even have an account at the bank.
Two persons were picked up and taken to the station based on the descriptions the man had given. It was at this point that Mohamed cried April’s Fool and told the police that he had fabricated the whole thing.
He told the magistrate that it was “all fools day” he made a mistake and he was very sorry.
