School proprietor in court for theft

A school proprietor was on Thursday dragged to a Kumasi circuit court for allegedly stealing an unregistered Dodge Sprinter van, priced at GH¢70,000.

Kusi Addai Kwarteng reportedly played a trick on the owner, succeeded in getting him to release documents of the vehicle and used them to register it in his name.

He pleaded not guilty to the offence and the court, presided over by Mrs. Mary Nsenkyire, granted him GH¢80,000 bail.

He was ordered to make his next appearance on Tuesday, November 7.

Police Chief Inspector Timothy Amoah said the accused had expressed interest in buying the van and had settled on a price of GH¢70,000 with the owner, Pastor Richard Opoku (complainant).

Kusi Addai Kwarteng convinced the owner to allow him to take possession of the van as he raised a loan from his bankers to pay him off within days, and the pastor was said to have agreed to it.

The prosecution said about a month on, Kwarteng called to inform the complainant that his bankers had asked to see the vehicle’s documents before granting the loan application and pleaded that he made photocopies of the original documents for him to satisfy the bank’s requirement.

Pastor Opoku readily did that and the accused used these to register the vehicle in his own name and used that as collateral to secure the bank loan.

After collecting the money, he refused to use it to pay for the vehicle and a report was subsequently made to the police.

The prosecution added that in his caution statement Kwateng admitted the offence.