An accountant was handed a two-year prison sentence after he admitted to using money belonging to the Ghana Police Church to play Aviator – an online betting game. Per MyJoyOnline, the convicted man, identified as 32-year-old Edward Unicorn, is said to have stolen over $2,000 to play the betting game.
Unicorn admitted to using the stolen funds for the aforementioned purpose and asked the court to release him on bail to enable him to work and reimburse the church. Unicorn entered a guilty plea to a charge of stealing. He, however, provided an explanation for his actions.
“I spent the money by playing Aviator (an online betting game). I staked it and never won. I was desperate to win but lost,” Unicorn, who was an accountant for the church, said. “I was addicted to Aviator, so my brother referred me to a doctor at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. I called him twice and I never went to see him. I put in the GH₵40,000 (over $2,000) bit by bit. I was desperate to win.”
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The judge ultimately sentenced Unicorn on his own plea. Besides ordering the 32-year-old to pay $318, the judge also ruled that the Ghana Police Church be handed an amount of $175 that was recovered from Unicorn.
Prosecutors said the individual who filed the complaint against Unicorn is a police officer and the church’s chaplain.
In February, Face2Face Africa reported that authorities in Florida had arrested and charged a man accused of using his company credit card to buy scratch-off lottery tickets amounting to $31,000. According to Fox News, the suspect, identified as Warren Alexander Johnson, committed the alleged crime while working as a truck driver for a company named All Phase Paving.
The owner of the company is said to have contacted authorities after noticing several thousand dollars had been illegally withdrawn from the company’s credit card since September 2023. The owner also informed police that Johnson and two other people only had credit cards linked to the company’s bank account. The owner explained that the credit cards were meant to be used for expenses pertaining to work.
