Court fines mason over cocoa theft

• Posted on August 28, 2018
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

The Enchi District Magistrate court has fined a mason GH¢720.00 for stealing two bags of dried cocoa beans valued at GH¢950.

Desmond Nsiah, who hails from Prestea in the Western Region, pleaded guilty to unlawful entry and stealing was convicted on his own plea.

Nsiah would in default spend 12 months in prison.

In addition to the fine, the judge also ordered him to sign a bond to be of good behavior for 12 months.

He will serve another 14 months in prison, if he fails to adhere to the terms of the bond.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ebenezer Anim Ofori told the court presided over by Mr Joseph Mensah, that the complainant, Isaac Mannah, is a cocoa purchasing clerk and owns a cocoa shed at Achimfo, near Enchi.

He said in the early hours of July 9, the complainant who lives in the same niegbourhood, kept two bags of dried cocoa beans in his shed, which he later left in the care of his cousin and went to the farm.

DSP Anim Ofori said whiles the complainant was away his cousin also left the shed to attend to some pressing issues and failed to lock the door leading to the shed.

He said Nsiah, who was all along monitoring the complainant and his cousin quickly went and hired the service of a taxi driven by one Agyabeng Clement and under the pretext of being a farmer and fetched the complainant’s two bags of dried cocoa beans proceeded to Asankragwa, in the Amenfi West Municipality and offered them for sale.

The Prosecution said when the two arrived at Asankragwa, Nsiah took the cocoa beans to one John Afful’s shed saying he hails from Yiwabra, near Enchi and that his mother has been admitted at the Roman Catholic hospital in Asankragwa and urgently needed money to settle her medical bills.

Based on that, DSP Anim Ofori said Afful bought the dried cocoa beans for GH¢950.

When the complainant returned later in the day, the prosecution said, he detected the theft of his dried cocoa beans and begun his own investigations and realised that it was Agyabeng who transported the convict to Asankragwa to offer the dried cocoa beans for sale.

The complainant contacted Agyabeng who in turn sent him to Afful.

DSP Anim Ofori said Afful refunded the two bags of dried cocoa beans to the complainant and since then all efforts made by him to trace Nsiah for his money proved futile.

He said on July 30, at 0900 hrs, while Agyabeng was driving through Enchi Township, he saw the convict with a sack of dried cocoa beans.

He alerted the Enchi police and Nsiah, who was recently convicted for a similar offence, was apprehended by the police together with the sack of cocoa beans.

Source: GNA