Ringtone: I am not a fraudster
Popular gospel musician Ringtone has moved to clear his name over fraud allegations.
The ‘Pamela’ hit maker was arrested and charged in court with defrauding a man on the pretext of being able to import a car for him.
In his defense, Ringtone, real name is Alex Apoko, said that he was selling one of his cars, a Toyota Prado, as he was no longer using it.
“I have several cars and in November 2013, I decided to sell the Prado. I accepted an offer to sell the car for Sh2.2 million.”
In documents seen exclusively by Nairobi News, the artiste entered into an agreement and received Sh500,000 with the balance to be settled by March 2014.
However, the buyer did not keep his end of the bargain.
” We had an agreement with the buyer to pay the rest of the money by March and then extended the grace period to June while he still used my car,” he said.
ONLY HUMAN
Ringtone’s patience finally ran out in December when he repossessed the car with the help of the police.
“I am only human and I could no longer keep turning the other cheek” he explained.
A few days later, he left for Christmas holidays at a five-star resort in the coast in the company of a flamboyant Nairobi politician and other friends.
Ringtone blames this politician for his woes as they had a minor tiff that led to their fall out.
Upon his return to the city, a nasty surprise awaited him as the following day, he was arrested and accused of fraud.
Ringtone then offered to refund the money he had received for the car but the buyer would hear none of it.
Unbeknown to him, the buyer had paid the outstanding balance of Sh1.1 million for the car and called the police to recover the car from the musician.
AMICABLE SOLUTION
Criminal charges were then preferred on the artiste, but the lawyer who had drawn up the sale agreement and who was acting for both parties moved to reconcile the two parties and an amicable solution was arrived at.
Ringtone, who is no stranger to controversy, takes the incident as another challenge to his life.
“I feel hurt as I was branded a conman while I was actually the victim. The car whose registration is KBK— was mine and I was not importing it as was purported.
“I forgive the person who leaked this private civil matter to the press who then distorted the facts of the case.”
Ringtone used his social media pages to assure his fans that he was not a conman but chose not to comment on the matter further saying the truth would finally come out.
This latest controversy comes just days before the release of his latest single ‘Party Leo‘ which is a collaboration with Ugandan artiste, Exodus.