There are many offences involving dishonesty under Ghanaian criminal law. In some cases, the elements (or ingredients) of the offence are the same. Some of these offences are Stealing, Dishonestly Receiving, Defrauding by False Pretences, Falsification of Accounts, Forgery and Uttering a Forged Document.
A person commits the offence of Stealing where they take your property without your permission with the intention of keeping it. In the facts, you give, you willingly gave up GHS 46,800. Therefore, there was no stealing really.
On the other hand, the offence of Defrauding by False Pretences (or what is normally called “Fraud”) occurs where a person makes a statement to you that if you part with your property to them, they would in turn do something for you, when they have no intention of keeping their promise or they knew their statement was false.
The facts you relate appear better suited for Defrauding by False Pretences than Stealing. You may report the matter to a police station near where the money was taken from you, where the gold was supposed to be given to you or near where the person who took your money took it from you. The police, in their discretion, would decide whether an offence has been committed, and what offence it is. Good luck.
So what happens if someone takes money from you with a promise of renting a room for you which in actual fact was true but has delayed due to reasons best known to him.How do you determine if he intended defrauding you or not.
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