Court jails two persons for cable theft

An Accra Circuit Court has sentenced Jibril Kassim, a scrap dealer and Nsor Alfred, Mason, to seven years imprisonment for stealing Vodafone cables.

The two will also serve one year imprisonment each for causing unlawful damage and two years for unlawful entry.

The sentences are to run concurrently.

Initially, the two convicts pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Prosecuting Chief Inspector Jubiok Michaels told the court that the complainants in the case are members of a community watch committee at Adenta.

He said on June 28, at about 0200 hours, a member of the watch committee, who lives behind the Vodafone Ghana Limited warehouse, spotted the convicts, folding some cables close to the fence wall of the warehouse in the dark.

The prosecution said he became alarmed and confronted the convicts to know the source of the cables but they (convicts) told him the cables were given to them by one of the security men from the warehouse.

He told the court that the member of the committee left the convicts and went into his room and called the leader of the committee, informing him about the operations of the convicts.

Chief Inspector Michaels said the leader quickly mobilised his men to the scene but the convicts were not there but they were put under surveillance.

“Approximately at about 0330 hours, the convicts appeared at the scene with a taxi cab and started parking the cables into the cab,” he added.

He said the complainants apprehended the convicts, together with the cables and handed them over to the police.

The prosecution said during investigations, the scene was inspected and it was detected that the convicts caused damage to some part of the fence wall by creating a large opening and unlawfully entered the premises of the warehouse and stole 35 meters of 200/o.5 FF cables valued at GH¢2,730.00.

They also caused damage to 40 meters of 400/0.5 FF, valued at GH¢5,200.00, bringing the total value to GH¢7,930.00.