KAMPALA – Three men were on Wednesday sentenced to four years in jail each in connection to electronic fraud and operating a telecommunications apparatus without licence from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).
Prosecution led by Mr Kenneth Sseguya told the Specialised Utilities Wildlife and Standards Court that Ibrahim Kagulire, 20, Denis Musaazi, 21 and Maxie Bingi, 34, intercepted international calls by using the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA) machine and other apparatus, costing the government and telecom companies more than Shs479.8m in taxes and revenue
According to Sseguya, the suspects were operating from Masanafu in Rubaga Division, a Kampala suburb between June 2019 and January 2020 where they had installed the GSMA machine. He told court that the GSMA machine was used by the convicts as a gateway machine to intercept international calls, which they would disguise as local calls that pay less taxes.
Mr Sseguya revealed that they were able to identify the anomaly since there were many static calls coming from a telecommunication mast in those particular areas. The group was arrested in possession of 584 MTN Uganda SIM cards, three Airtel SIM cards, phones and a laptop, among other unlicensed gadgets.
Magistrate Stella Maris Amabilis then sentenced Kagulire, Musaazi and Bingi on their own plea of guilty, arguing that offences of electronic fraud are becoming rampant hence court needs to protect the communication sector to put a stop on loss of revenue.
