Car washer jailed for stealing fuel pumps

Kumasi, Feb. 3, GNA - A 20-year-old car washer at the Airport Roundabout was on Monday sentenced to five years imprisonment by a Kumasi circuit court for stealing two fuel pumps estimated at 34 million cedis.

Kwasi Frimpong pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Kuffour Boateng told the court that on January 3, 2005, Abdulramanu Barise, a filling station owner at Denkyemourso on the Atwima-Techiman road went to his filling station and discovered that his two fuel pumping machines were missing. He said Barise quickly informed his colleagues in the fuel business to help him find the pumps.

Chief Inspector Boateng said on January 17, one of his colleagues at Kenyasi alerted him that Frimpong had brought two pumping machines to him for sale.

Following this information, he said, the complainant rushed to Kenyasi and identified the items as his and so a report was made to the police leading to the arrest of the accused. In his defence, Frimpong claimed that he did not steal the pumps and that his friend, Akwasi Apraku, who is at large, brought them to his room.

He said his friend took his 900,000 cedis and left the machines in his room and that besides the two pumps, the friend also left his T-shirt and socks and a message for him that he would return. The accused said since his friend said he was going to his grandmother's house, he followed him there but did not find him there and since he needed his money to process his passport, he decided to sell the pumps.

The court, however, rejected his defence claiming that there was no truth in his explanation, especially so, when the prosecutor did not find the said belongings of his friend in his room.