An alleged notorious armed robber, Robert Nii Yaw Lamptey, who was on the police wanted list has been arrested and sentenced to seven years imprisonment with hard labour by an Accra circuit tribunal.
His accomplice, Issah Salami, alias Osumanu, is on the run. A second person who has not been identified was lynched by a mob when the gang attempted to snatch a lady?s bag from a woman who went to withdraw an amount of ?1.5 million from the Social Security Bank at Kokomlemle.
Lamptey was charged with conspiracy, stealing and causing unlawful damage to a fence wall valued at ?824,000, the property of one Luke Amon Dzane.
The prosecutor told the tribunal, presided over by Mr Imoru Ziblim, that Lamptey is the leader of a notorious armed robbery gang which had committed a series of robberies in the Accra metropolis in recent times and had since been on the police wanted list.
The prosecutor said sometime last August, at about 10:15 am, the complainant cashed an amount of ?1.5 million from SSB, Kokomlemle, and was heading towards her office on the Ring Road when Lamptey and his accomplices started trailing her.
The prosecutor said in the process, the deceased accomplice suddenly snatched the complainant?s black handbag containing the money and fled in a waiting Mazda private car with registration number WR 5679 A, driven by Lamptey. Some people who were at the scene chased and retrieved the money from Lamptey whose car run into a fence wall.
A crowd which gathered at the scene beat up Lamptey and Salami who later escaped. The third unidentified person was however lynched.
Lamptey, who sustained multiple injuries was rescued by the police from the mob and sent to the police hospital where he was treated.
The car has been confiscated to the state to be used by the police to combat crime.
