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Owusu Banahene, a former player of Ghanaian top-flight side King Faisal, has been placed in police custody for allegedly duping a banker in a sophisticated 419 scam. The ex-goalkeeper, who is reportedly operating a sophisticated 419 scam, conned the banker out of his $4,000 in exchange for a plot of land. He had collected the money under the pretext of selling to him a plot of land at Asuofua in the Atwima-Nwabiagya District. Banahene was put before a Kumasi Circuit Court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to offence. He was remanded into prison custody, to be brought back to answer for his crime on September 25. Police Chief Inspector James Amekah told the court presided over by Mr. D.W.P. Amedior that the complainant, Prince Ankomah Mensah, is a banker and lives at Ashtown, Kumasi, whilst the accused, resides at Asuofua. Banahene sold the plot to Mensah for the said amount on April 12, this year, and had issued him an allocation paper and a site plan. When the complainant moved in to develop the land, he found to his amazement that someone had also started developing it. The prosecution said after enquiries it came out that Banahene after all did not have the legitimate title to the land and that it had been leased to another person. He, therefore, made a formal report to the police and the accused was arrested. His counsel, Mr Oheneba Kuffour�s plea with the court to grant him bail was refused. He had argued that the said land indeed was owned by his client and was part of a swathe of family land, now at the centre of court litigation. Mr. Amedior said he could not rule out the accused fleeing from the court�s jurisdiction, especially when the police are said to be investigating other similar complaints against him.