A Waller­field cou­ple ap­peared be­fore a mag­is­trate to­day charged with ob­tain­ing mon­ey by false pre­tences af­ter a po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to a bo­gus land deal.

The An­ti-Cor­rup­tion In­ves­ti­ga­tions Bu­reau (ACIB) al­leged the two de­fraud­ed a vic­tim of $140,000 for a par­cel of land at Gin­ger Lil­ly Dri­ve, Ja­cob Hill, Ari­ma. In­ves­ti­ga­tors said the cou­ple false­ly claimed the land was reg­is­tered with the State agency re­spon­si­ble for man­ag­ing State lands, but sub­se­quent checks found no such record.

The case fol­lowed a 2023 re­port from the head of the agency, which had flagged ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties with the doc­u­ments.

The ac­cused were grant­ed bail of $150,000 each with sure­ty when they ap­peared be­fore Mas­ter Lisa Singh Phillip at the Ari­ma Mag­is­trates’ Court. The mat­ter was ad­journed to Oc­to­ber 24.

The TTPS ad­vised the pub­lic to ex­er­cise cau­tion when en­ter­ing land trans­ac­tions, urg­ing peo­ple to seek le­gal ad­vice, con­duct prop­er ti­tle search­es and ver­i­fy own­er­ship with the rel­e­vant agen­cies be­fore mak­ing any pay­ments.