Musician gets 12 months for possessing firearms

An Accra Circuit Court on Monday sentenced one Gregory Blake Ellary to 12 months imprisonment in hard labour for possessing firearms.

Blake Ellary who was said to have in his possession of a revolver pistol with five live ammunition and an empty shell pleaded guilty to the charge of possessing firearms and was convicted on his own plea.

He is to serve 12 months in prison and pay a fine of 300 penalty units or in default serve two years jail term.

The Court presided over by Mr Aboagye Tandor who sentenced him said the Court took into consideration the convicts plea for mitigation by his counsel, and the fact that he was a first time offender.

He said the court also considered the fact that there was the need to deter people from handling weapons without authority to the detriment of the general public.

The accused was also charged for threat of death, but he pleaded not guilty to the charge and would reappear on September 11 for trial.

Prosecuting Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Kweku Bempah told the court that the complainant, Maxwell Odame is a Mechanic residing at Amasaman, while the convict is a Musician and lives at Kokrobite.

He said about a month ago, Gregory bought a BMW Motor bike from the complainant’s master, by name Malik Abed. Two weeks later he noticed a mechanical fault on the engine and did not hesitate to send it back to the seller for repairs.

The prosecution said there was an agreement that the seller would repair the engine and share the cost with Gregory.

DSP Bempah told the Court that on August 24, the seller called the convict that he had repaired the engine.

On August 25, when the convict went to collect the motor bike, Malik asked him to bring GHc 500.00 being half the cost of repair, to which he agreed and decided to test the motor bike.

He said in view of this, Malik asked the complainant to sit behind him for the test. Gregory took the complainant to North Kaneshie and stopped along the road and told him to run for his dear life or else he would shoot him.

According to the prosecution, the complainant did not take it serious and to his surprise Gregory pulled out a foreign revolver pistol loaded with five rounds of ammunition, corked it, pointed it at him and attempted to run away with the bike.

He told the court that the complainant defied all of the threats and started struggling with him over the bike, which attracted a witness to the scene.

DSP Bempah said after the witness had listened to both parties, he escorted both of them together with the gun to the Darkuman Police Station, where the complainant made a report to the police.

He said Gregory was searched and detained for investigations. The police then disengaged the gun by firing the bullet stocked in its chamber.