Storekeeper, three others charged for stealing

Cape Coast, Jan.16, GNA - Four young men from Komenda in the Central Region who allegedly conspired and stole an amount of 104 million cedis from a store in which one of them was in charge, were on Tuesday granted 30 million cedis bail each with a surety to be justified by a Cape Coast circuit court.

Ernest Ackah 32, storekeeper, Patrick Andoh 25, Philip Nyanney 29 both labourers and Kwesi Gyan 22, unemployed, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, unlawful entry and stealing and are to reappear on Monday February 5.

Chief Inspector Augustine Amonoo, prosecuting told the court, presided over by Mr Beresford Acquah that the complainant Ama Anowa Ewur, a businesswoman based in Accra employed Ackah as a storekeeper in her store full of bags of sugar, rice, flour and cartons of margarine at Komenda.

He said Ackah in turn engaged the services of Andoh and Nyanney to assist him in the store while Gyan, who is a friend to Ackah also frequented the store.

The prosecutor said an arrangement was made by the complainant with the SGSSB bank in Cape Coast where a courier goes for the sales made by Ackah, twice in a week, but in the morning of October 27 when the courier was to go for the sales, Ackah reported to the police that the store had been broken into and an amount of more than 104 million cedis stolen.

Chief inspector Amonoo said Ackah later told the police that the amount missing was 69.5 million cedis but during investigations it was detected that the figures he mentioned did not tally with what he recorded and he was arrested.

He further alleged that when the rooms of Andoh and Nyanney were searched three cartons of margarine and an amount of 700,000 cedis were found but they could not tell how they came by the margarine. Gyan was also arrested upon a tip-off that he was an accomplice.