Court jails mason 30 years

An Accra circuit court on Monday sentenced Tsevi Akapo Duvor, a mason, to 30 years imprisonment for attempted robbery contrary to section 18 and 149 of the Criminal Code.

The court, presided over by Justice Francis Obiri, sentenced Duvor, alias Black Cat, on his own plea.

The judge said the convict deserved a harsher sentence because the menace was on the increase.

“People like the convict should be confined in prison custody for a long time for law abiding citizens to be free in conducting their daily activities,” he said.

The Prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney, Joyce Buerkour Debrah, told the court that the complainant is a mobile phone card seller, who lives at Ofankor.

She said on January 17, 2012, at about 8:40pm, the complainant was returning from her master’s shop where she had collected some top-up cards for sale the next day.

She said the cards were in a bag which also contained a mobile phone and some money.

She said the convict slapped the complainant and ordered her to surrender the bag to him, but when the complainant resisted, the convict held her throat and tried to snatch the bag.

The prosecutor said the complainant, who was with her daughter, shouted for help which attracted a passerby, who chased the convict but could not arrest him.

She said the complainant later described the convict to some people in the area, who gave her the mobile phone number of the convict to call under the pretence of inviting him for employment.

The convict followed up and with the help of the police, he was arrested and later identified by the complainant.

The convict admitted the attack, but said he was trying to collect money owed him by the complainant.