An electrician who allegedly kept Sh21,900 erroneously sent to his M-Pesa account was charged with intentionally withholding payment delivered erroneously contrary to Section 35 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act of 2018.
Caston Majanja was accused of withholding the money sent to him by James Deng on March 25 this year at Sportsview Estate within Kasarani in Nairobi, which ought to have been delivered to someone else.
The accused person was also charged with obtaining money by false pretences contrary to Section 313 of the Penal Code.
Mr Majanja is accused of obtaining the Sh21,900 from Mr Deng with the intent to defraud while pretending he was a caretaker of a building at the estate where Mr Deng was looking for a house.
The suspect allegedly obtained the money falsely pretending he was in a position to offer the complainant a residential house knowing the same was not true.
Mr Deng, who is a student at a college in Nairobi city centre, was looking for a house when he met Mr Majanja who claimed to be a caretaker.
He was given a telephone number where he was to send the rent and was shown a vacant house at an apartment after making payment and moving in.
Confirmed the same
The complainant was later informed by other tenants that the person he had made the payment to was not the landlord and he contacted the landlord who confirmed the same.
The landlord visited and informed him that he had not employed Mr Majanja or anyone as the caretaker.
That is when Mr Deng discovered he had been conned.
Mr Deng later met Mr Majanja and escorted him to Kasarani police station where he reported the incident and the suspect was arrested by police officers.
Mr Majanja denied the charges before Senior Principal Magistrate Agnes Mwangi of Makadara Law Courts.
He was released on a cash bail of Sh25,000.
The case will be mentioned on April 18 before the hearing starts on September 6.
