Five remanded for siphoning GH₵2.6million from company

Five employees of Kwadwo Ofori aka K Ofori Enterprise Limited have appeared before an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly stealing building materials worth GHS2,615,011.

The accused persons are Santa Nangba, a 27-year-old Sales Manager, Peter Bawla, a 28-year-old Supervisor, William Dagadu, 27, Michael Jeffery a 28-year-old IT Technician and Felix Ofori -Boafo, a Cashier.

They have pleaded not guilty to the charges of Conspiracy to commit crime namely stealing and stealing.

The Court presided over by Mr Samuel Bright Acquah has remanded them into Police custody to enable the Police conduct further investigations into the matter.

This was after the accused persons respective lawyers had argued for bail for the accused persons.

Prosecution led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Augustus Yirenkyi opposed the bail application, saying the matter was under investigation.

The Court obliged the prosecution’s argument and remanded them into lawful custody.

The matter has been adjourned to January 5, 2023.

The Prosecution narrated that the complainant, Frank Kwadwo Ofori is the Director of Kwadwo Ofori Enterprise Limited, Accra and the accused persons his employees whom he trained to manage his various branches.

It said the accused persons were formally working in Accra and they were later transferred to Cape Coast to manage a branch.

The Prosecution said the accused persons were supplied iron rods, cement, binding wires, and nails to be sold by the complainant in large quantities.

It said the complainant trusted the accused persons, especially Nangba, his sales manager of the Cape Coast branch.

The Prosecution said on or before September 2022, the accused persons requested for bags of cement to be supplied to them.

It said, the complainant however realised that the accused persons had about 10,000 bags of cement in stock. The complainant therefore became skeptical as to why the accused persons were requesting for bags of cement among others.

The Prosecution told the Court that the complainant through one of his employees got to know that the accused had sold the bags of cement that they had in stock, but they had failed to account for them.

It said the complainant became alarmed and together with his accounting officers conducted stocking at the Cape Coast branch and it was revealed that" a net shortage of stock to the tune of GHS2,615, 011.30.

The Prosecution said he therefore invited the accused persons to the head office in Accra and he interrogated the accused persons.

According to the prosecution, accused persons admitted having stolen items such as iron rods, bags of cement, binding wires, and nails to the tune of GHS2,568, 770.40 and wrote in an undertaking to refund the money to the complainant.

It said on December 20, this year, he reported the matter to the Police and accused persons were arrested.

The prosecution said the accused persons in their caution statement admitted the offence.

"Investigations revealed that the accused persons had sold the materials which were supplied to them without accounting for them," it added.