Foreigner sentenced to 18 months in prison for fraud in north Cyprus

A foreigner was on Wednesday sentenced to 18 months in prison by a TRNC court after he was found guilty of defrauding someone on Facebook.

The case against the defendant identified only as SGG was announced by a court in Lefkosa on Wednesday.

The defendant was was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he was found guilty of defrauding a person of his money via Facebook.

The incident happened on March 6, 2023 when the defendant through a Facebook page with the name Mobilezone 247 pretended to be an employee on the site and introduced himself as Senga JOSEPH, a resident of south Cyprus.

He then contacted one B.Y., a resident of Kyrenia, who was trying to buy an electric bike online. 

He fraudulently obtained money from the victim who transferred a total of 8000 TL to his account with Türkiye İş Bankası.

The defendant was identified and arrested by the police in Lefkosa on March, 13, 2023 following a complaint.

Police during investigation discovered that the defendant was staying in the TRNC and had been living illegally in the country for 530 days until the day he was arrested.