Former security officer jailed three years

September 27, 2008 (Mirror - Page 27)

AFTER two years of trial, the Accra Circuit Court has sentenced a former security officer of Yasarko Printing Press Limited, a printing firm in Accra to three years imprisonment for stealing GH¢33,850 belonging to his employer.
Hanson Lawrence Agyare-Sefah pleaded guilty at a time when he had opened his defence, gave his evidence-in-chief and was expected to answer questions under cross examination from Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Eric Amoako.
He was sentenced on his own plea.
The court found him guilty on 34 counts of conspiracy and stealing and sentenced him to three years imprisonment on each count. His sentence is to run concurrently.
Hanson had admitted in his caution statement that he forged the signature of the company's chief executive to steal money from the company's accounts.
According to him he sneaked into the office of the Director of the company, Mr Yaw Sarkodie, to steal an unspecified number of leaflets from the Standard Chartered Bank cheque books and further admitted using part of the stolen money to purchase two Nissan Urvan buses.
However, counsel for two other accused persons namely Joseph Oppong and Christian Aban, both former drivers of the company have made submissions of no case after the prosecution closed its case.
The court has fixed Wednesday, September 24, 2008 for ruling on the submission of no case.
Oppong and Aban had each pleaded not guilty to one count each of abetment of crime and have since been granted bail.
The facts of the case are that on August 17, 2006 the accountant of Yasarko Press Limited detected the theft of 29 cheque leaflets from the company’s cheque books which were normally kept at the Managing Director’s office.
According to the prosecution, the accountant informed the Managing Director, who then followed up to the Dansoman branch of the Standard Chartered Bank where 13 photocopies of stolen cheques were obtained.
Following the arrest of the accused persons, the police retrieved four additional photocopies of stolen cheques from the bank.
It was later found out that a total of ¢338.5 million had been withdrawn from the company’s accounts.
Security cameras at the Dansoman Branch of the Standard Chartered Bank revealed Oppong and Aban cashing money with the stolen cheques on June 23, 2006 and June 28, 2006 respectively at the instance of Hanson.
Forensic examinations revealed that Hanson prepared and signed all the cheques.
Investigations also revealed that Hanson cashed majority of the cheques with Oppong and Aban cashing two of the stolen cheques.
Two mini-buses which Hanson allegedly used the stolen money to purchase have been impounded by the police.
An amount of GH ¢3,100 was also retrieved from Hanson’s bank accounts.