Unemployed man jailed four years for stealing pieces of Kente cloth

A 21-year-old unemployed man, who stole two sets of Kente clothes, a laptop, Nikon digital camera and a Samsung Galaxy S3 mini mobile phone, has been sentenced by an Accra Circuit Court.

Mohammed Ali Yusif, aka “Slim,” also stole an Olympus digital voice recorder and two pieces of lace fabrics.

Yusif, who was charged with stealing and conspiracy to commit crime, pleaded guilty.

The Court presided over by Isaac Oheneba Kuffour, convicted Yusif on his own plea and sentenced him to four years imprisonment on conspiracy to commit crime and four years imprisonment on stealing, all to run concurrently.

Meanwhile his accomplices, Daniel Anafo, a 21-year-old also unemployed, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit crime and stealing, while Tanko Mohammed, a 35-year-old trader also pleaded not guilty to dishonestly receiving.

Anafo and Tanko were remanded into Police custody.

The facts, as presented by Police Chief Inspector Michael Mensah was that the complainant Madam Annabelle Augustina Calvert, who resides at East Legon in Accra is a fashion designer, while Anafo and Tanko, residents of Achimota Railways, and the convict resided at Achimota Kingsby.

The prosecution said on March 4, 2023, at about 22:30 hours, the Accra Regional Police Intelligence Directorate was informed that one young man at Achimota Charcoal Station, had in his possession a digital voice recorder suspected to have been stolen, and was being offering for sale.

It said a team of Intelligence Officers were dispatched to the said location where Anafo was arrested with an Olympus digital voice recorder.

“Based on the same information, the team also proceeded to the Achimota Railways and arrested Tanko, retrieving from a stolen Nikon digital camera,” the prosecution added.

It said during an investigation, Anafo admitted having stolen the said digital voice recorder together with the digital camera and other valuable items from a white man’s residence and mentioned the convict as his accomplice.

The prosecution said Anafo led the Police to the residence of the complainant and demonstrated how he and the convict gained ingress into the residence and stole the items.

The convict was finally arrested after months of being at large.

The prosecution said investigation revealed that on February 19, 2023, at about 22:00 hours, Anafo and the convict who were good friends, met at their usual base at Achimota Railways and planned to go for a stealing operation.

“Together, they walked to Abofu near the Achimota overhead where they boarded a commercial vehicle to roundabout near the Accra Shopping Mall, walked through the motorway and entered East Legon and finally got to the complainant’s residence at 12:00 midnight on February 20, 2023,” the prosecution said.

It said Anafo and the convict scaled the fence wall into the house, further scaled up onto a balcony on the first floor at the back of the building and gained ingress into the building through the backdoor.

The prosecution said in one of the rooms, Anafo and the convict stole the Olympus digital voice recorder, Nikon digital camera, a laptop computer, a black tablet, a Samsung Galaxy s3 mini phone, a set of lace fabrics and two sets of Kente clothes, fled with their booty and sold them to some dishonest receivers including Tanko.