PHOTO: 2 car snatchers jailed 100 years

• Posted on March 24, 2014March 24, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

TWO NOTORIOUS car snatchers have been sentenced to 100 years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to the charges of conspiracy to rob and robbery.

The convicts, Emmanuel Maxwell Nartey and Felix Adjei, both 26 years of age and mobile phone repairers, were slapped with the jail term by the Tema Circuit Court ‘B’, presided over by Cecilia Don-Chebe Agbevey.

Their modus operandi was to send the stolen vehicles to the Volta Region where they sold them at cheap prices to a certain Mohammed Issifu, who was charged with the offence of dishonestly receiving and subsequently granted bail by the court.

Nartey and Adjei attacked a taxi driver and stabbed him severally after a failed attempt to snatch his vehicle. The victim was treated at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital after he had been in coma for some weeks.

Two separate charges were preferred against them and they were handed 10 years each on the charges of conspiracy and 25 years each on the two different robbery charges leveled against them.

The facts of the case, as presented by Assistant Superintendent (ASP) of Police Frederick Bamson, were that the suspects were apprehended following a complaint lodged against the gang by one of the victims, Adamu Kpanti.

Adamu, a taxi driver who was using a Nissan Almera with registration number GX 2278-13 on February 7, 2014, said at about 10:00 pm, he was approached by Nartey and Adjei to send them to the Tetteh Quarshie roundabout to meet a friend.

On reaching there, the suspects instructed the complainant to further proceed to the Accra Mall with an explanation that the said friend they were looking for was at the Mall.

Adamu reportedly complied and drove them there. At the Mall, Adjei allegedly alighted from the taxi and headed straight to the car park where he made a mobile phone call to an unknown person and spoke for several minutes.

Nartey and Adjei, bent on executing their criminal agenda, according to the prosecutor, again asked the driver to drive them to Dawhenya since the friend they were supposed to meet had left for that place.

The unsuspecting driver complied and recognizing that he was not familiar with the area, the men asked him to drive on until they got to the outskirts of the suburb – near the Central University College (CUC) campus at Miotso – where they instructed him to stop the vehicle.

ASP Frederick Bamson told the court that Nartey immediately alighted under the pretext of attending to nature’s call, while Adjei still sat behind the driver with a bag in his hand. Moments later, Nartey returned from a nearby bush and sat in his seat.

Immediately the driver attempted to ignite the cab’s engine, Adjei quickly handed over the bag he was carrying to Nartey who quickly pulled a knife and pointed it at him (driver).

Adjei allegedly alighted from the taxi and also pulled a knife and briskly walked to the complainant’s side, seized his left wrist and asked him to surrender the keys to the taxi.

They succeeded in snatching the vehicle and sped off towards Sogakope in the Volta Region.

Adamu reportedly chased them in a different taxi up to Tsokpoli Police Barrier where he lodged a complaint with the police. The police wasted no time in sending a message to the police at Sogakope about the snatched taxi.

On reaching the Sogakope barrier, Nartey and Adjei were arrested and handed over to the Prampram police.

They admitted the offence and mentioned Mohammed Issifu in their caution statements as the person who always bought snatched taxis from them. They later led the police to arrest Issifu from his base at Tapa Abotoase in the Volta Region and also to retrieve a taxi they had earlier sold to him.

From Vincent Kubi, Tema