Tribunal reduces constable's sentence

Accra, May 3, GNA - A Greater-Accra Regional Tribunal on Wednesday reduced the custodial sentence imposed on a former police constable by a circuit tribunal from 15 years to five years.

The unanimous decision of the five-member tribunal followed a submission made by Mr Atta Akyea, counsel for the appellant, Samuel Kwesi Kpabitey, who appealed against his sentence.

Mr Justice Benjamin Okai Tetteh, Chairman of the tribunal, said the five-year sentence started from the first day of Kpabitey's sentence by the circuit tribunal on September 10, 1997.

Mr Justice Tetteh said as a former police constable, Kpabitey, who was attached to the Cantonments branch of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit, "ought to have known better".

Setting aside the earlier judgement delivered by the circuit tribunal, chaired by Mr Charles Nyewolema, Mr Justice Tetteh said the regional tribunal was considering the appeal on the grounds that Kpabitey had lost his job in the Police Service and benefits as a result of his conviction.

In his submission, Mr Akyea told the tribunal that when proceedings in the case were going on, his client, who has been arraigned for stealing an accident car valued at 2.5 million cedis, displayed remorse when he changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.

Counsel submitted that the tribunal consequently convicted Kpabitey on his own plea and sentenced him to 15 years' imprisonment in hard labour. Mr Akyea said looking at the circumstances of the case, the sentence imposed on his client by the circuit tribunal was "manifestly excessive".

Touching on the value of the vehicle, counsel pointed out that he was "not playing down on the figures" but contended that the sentence "was against proportionality".

Mr Akyea submitted that, as a first offender, the tribunal could have dealt leniently with his client by sentencing him to at least three years' imprisonment in addition to a refund of the value of the vehicle to its owner. He, therefore, prayed the tribunal to "intervene" in the matter by considering the appeal so that his client could be given "some liberty and one more time to join society to pursue his private life".

Miss Stella Badu, who represented the state, did not oppose counsel's submission. The facts of the case, as narrated to the circuit tribunal, were that in May 1996, the vehicle in question, a Datsun taxi cab, belonging to one Samuel Bediako Mensah of Abeka was involved in an accident.

When the matter was reported at the Cantonments Police Station, Kpabitey who was then attached to the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit of the station was tasked to investigate.

Later, Bediako could not trace his vehicle at the station but the police later found it at the workshop of one Kwabena Obeng Ofosu, an auto-electrician, who was arrested.

Upon interrogation, Ofosu mentioned Osei Twum, a dealer in the sale of spare parts at Kokompe, as the one who sold the vehicle to him for 750,000 cedis. Twum then mentioned Kpabitey as the one who sold the car to him for 400,000 cedis and he was also arrested.

Kpabitey was charged with stealing and Twum with dishonestly receiving.