Judge urges the police to be conversant with criminal code

Cape Coast, Aug.3, GNA - Mr Beresford Acquah, a Circuit Court judge in Cape Coast, on Monday charged the police to be conversant with the criminal code in order to ensure the preferment of appropriate charges against accused persons.

Mr Acquah made the call when he discharged a 32-year-old hairdresser, Georgina Owusu, who had been charged with 'fictitious trade'.

Georgina Owusu had pleaded not guilty. The judge upheld the defence counsel's submission that the accused had been wrongfully charged. Discharging her, Mr Acquah explained that 'fictitious trade' found in the criminal code "was not by itself a substantive charge, but a support to a charge".

He therefore asked the complainant, from whom Owusu had bought goods on credit but failed to pay within the stipulated time, to initiate civil action against the accused. Earlier, counsel for Owusu, Mr Kofi Apeatse, had argued that the police had no case against his client, and that the police should not be seen as a debt collecting institution.

Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Gershon Awuye had told the court that sometime in February this year, Owusu bought hair products and pieces of weave-on worth 2,250 Ghana Cedis from the complainant on credit to sell and pay her back within a month, but failed to do so. He said all efforts by the complainant to retrieve the money proved futile, so she reported the matter to the police. When Owusu was arrested, she admitted selling the items but said she had used the money to pay her rent advance. 03-08-09