The circuit Court in Weija, presided over by Mr. Bernard Bentil, has sentenced two men to five years imprisonment for stealing goods worth ¢44,556.31 from their employer.
The two—Nathaniel Ekow Anderson and Patrick Semadebe—according to court records on July 26, 2020, stole goods belonging to 2PA Company Limited to the tune of GH13,332.23 and GH31,224.0 respectively.
The accused persons, Nathaniel Ekow Anderson and Patrick Semadebe were processed for Court after they were reported to the police for similar offences in December 2019 for collecting goods worth GH16,089.89 and GH36,561.43 and failed to account for them.
The accused persons were charged with four counts of stealing contrary to Section 124(1) of the Criminal and Other Offenses Act, 1960 (Act 29).
The prosecution led by Chief Inspector George Anane Antwi during the trial called three witnesses, Madam Patricia Acquaye Pappoe and Mr. Derrick Duodu who are the complainants as well the case investigator to prove its case.
It was the prosecution’s case that the goods handed over to the convicts could not be found and the money the goods would have yielded after sales also could not be found.
The convicts in their police caution statement admitted the losses but framed it as business losses, rather than a willful misappropriation on their part.
The Judge, Mr. Bernard Bentil at the end of the trial found that the prosecution had made a prima facie against the accused persons and convicted them on all four counts of stealing.
The court said it had noticed that it was not the first time the convicts had been involved in the incident as in a previous occurrence, they were sent to the police station where an agreement was reached for them to defray the losses through deductions from their salaries.
The court held that the accused persons admitted the offence in their defense and also took notice of the naivety of the two accused persons and the poverty of the defense that was employed.
The court, therefore, convicted the two on their own admissions but in sentencing them took into account the fact that they are first-time offenders.
Nathaniel Ekow Anderson was sentenced to two years each for the two counts of stealing to run concurrently while Patrick Semadebe was sentenced to three years each for the two counts of stealing also to run concurrently.
In addition to the sentence, the two are to refund the entire money they stole to the complainants.
