Stolen GOIL coupons were worth ¢9.1 billion

November 21, 2007 (Page 3)

Story: Mabel Aku Baneseh

THE Accra circuit court trying four persons for allegedly stealing fuel coupons belonging to the Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL) was yesterday informed that the value of stolen coupons had risen from ¢4.5 billion to ¢9.1 billion.
According to the prosecution, investigations were ongoing and it was likely that the number of coupons which were stolen between September and October this year might rise.
Four persons — Emmanuel Amegashie, Production Technician of Camelot Ghana Limited, printers of the coupons; Lawrence Avorgbedor, former employee of Camelot Ghana Limited; Joshua Kwamina Asamoah, a taxi driver, and Samuel Kofi Addo, a former fuel pump attendant at the Dansoman GOIL Filling Station — are alleged to have committed the offence.
The police have since seized two vehicles, a BMW saloon car and a Toyota Four Runner, belonging to Avorgbedor and a KIA saloon car belonging to Asamoah.
Initial investigations revealed that Amegashie, who was also in charge of Quality Control, Plant, Equipment and Electrical Maintenance, allegedly went into the hologram vault room and stole more than 30,000 leaflets of the GH¢20 and GH¢15 denominations of the fuel coupons and gave them to Avorgbedor for sale.
Avorgbedor then printed serial numbers on the coupons and gave them to Asamoah, who in turn gave them to Addo for sale.
The accused persons each pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy and stealing and were remanded to appear again on November 20, 2007.
At the court’s sitting in Accra yesterday, counsel for the accused persons prayed the court to grant their clients bail but the prosecution objected, with the reason that the accused persons might interfere with investigations if they were granted bail, since investigations were ongoing to determine the exact amount involved in the deal.
The court, after listening to arguments from both the defence team and the prosecution, decided to rule on the bail application today.
On November 9, 2007, the court remanded the accused persons based on the statement from the prosecution that investigations were ongoing.
The facts of the case are that Amegashie was caught on camera carrying the items out of the Hologram and Micro Numbering Vault rooms of Camelot Ghana Limited.
According to the prosecution, Addo began selling the stolen coupons after he had been contracted by Asamoah to do so and later resigned as a fuel station attendant to sell the coupons full-time.
The prosecution stated that the audit department of GOIL later detected that the serial numbers printed on the coupons were different from the genuine coupons. It then alerted the other filling stations to be on the look out and on October 30, 2007, Addo was arrested at the Dansoman GOIL Filling Station when he went there to sell the coupons.
Addo’s arrest eventually led to the arrest of the other accused persons.
Nine filling stations are suspected to be involved in the deal in Accra alone.
Investigations are going on nationwide to determine the exact amount involved in the deal.