Bogus faith healer jailed for £145,000 fraud

A BOGUS faith healer in Birmingham who defrauded several women of around £145,000 has been jailed for seven and a half years.

Abdoulie Gassama, of Slade Road, Erdington, pleaded guilty to 22 offences under the Theft Act 1968 and Fraud Act 2006 and was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court.

The 34-year-old, who advertised his services under the pseudonyms Shaikh Jammal and Shaikh Riyad in a number of local and Asian newspapers, claimed to have 40 years’ experience and guaranteed results.

Birmingham City Council brought the prosecution following complaints made to Trading Standards officers between December 2014 and March 2015 from several women who had responded to the advertisements seeking to solve family and financial problems.

Gassama met his clients at a flat in Malvern Road, Handsworth, and would initially charge £20 for the first session, but then asked for extra money for prayers, special medicines and sacrificial animals including cows and crocodiles.

The court heard there appeared to be no set fee structure, with Gassama demanding extra payments ranging from £377 to £17,000 – which led to one woman handing him more than £134,000 over seven months, as he promised her husband would give up drinking.

Cllr Barbara Dring, chair of the city council’s Licensing and Public Protection Committee, said: “This man has cynically exploited three vulnerable women, who sought his help in what must have been very traumatic and trying times.

“Not only did he make, and break, a string of empty promises, he gave them expensive false hope that their situations would improve, if they paid for extra prayers or sacrificial animals.

“Sadly it is easy to be seduced by the offer of a ‘quick fix’ but people should be very wary of paying any individual promising to solve their problems in this manner, instead they should seek advice through professional channels.”