BY ROMINAH FAKA
The trial of a man accused of fraudulently getting money from students by promising them fake scholarships has been vacated.
Donald Keso is accused of obtaining money from students with the false promise of giving them Solomon Islands Government Scholarships (SIG) awards.
He is facing three counts of obtaining money by false pretence, to which he pleaded not guilty.
During the final interim-mention on Friday last week defence requested court to vacate the trial date, which was scheduled to commence on the morning of Monday, July 21, 2025 at the Magistrate Court.
Defence informed court that they intended to submit a proposal to prosecution and requested time to do so.
Court agreed to vacate the trial date and has adjourned the matter to Thursday next week, July 31.
This is to allow time for the defence to file their proposal, serve it to the prosecution, and as well as for prosecution to respond and confirm their position.
It is alleged that on different dates in the months of March and April in 2022, Keso lied to the complainants saying that he was working as an agent for the National Training Unit (NTU).
He also promised the complainants that if they produced their required documents and gave him sum of $1000, he would place their names on the Solomon Islands Government scholarship (SIG).
Upon hearing the promises, two of the complainants gave Keso $1000 each while one allegedly gave Keso $2,000 for himself and his sister.
Keso then told the victims that he would call them to collect their offer letter when their names were listed for the scholarships.
The complainants waited for a response from Keso but nothing happened.
One of them then went to the NTU office and enquired if a person by the name of Donald Keso worked at SITESA and in response, a receptionist allegedly told him that a senior female staff member that Donald Keso used to work for had already resigned.
The complainants were students of the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) at the time of the offence.
Keso was later arrested by the police after the three complainants lodged their complaints on February 18, 2023.
Martha Mutukera from ODPP is prosecuting and PSO represents Donald Keso.
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