A 31 year old man will spend the next 15 months of his life behind bars for conning two innocent people out of their life savings after making false promises that he could arrange migration visas for them.

Praveen Sharma between January to May 2006 advertised in one of the dailies that he could arrange migration visas and then obtained over $5000 from the two unsuspecting clients and used the money for personal gains.

While handing down the sentence, Magistrate Amani Rokotinaviti highlights that Sharma also engaged several lawyers since his first appearance in January 2006 and also changed his plea after he earlier denied the charges.

He noted that in mitigation Sharma said he was sorry for what he did to the complainants and the he admitted to one previous conviction of a similar nature.

Magistrate Rokovinaviti stressed that the time has come for the courts to set the pace so that all those who conduct their business in Fiji should do so diligently and deliver the services they promise to their clients. He said any false representation should be dealt with seriously by the courts.