Carpenter gets 25 years for robbery

An Accra Circuit Court on Monday sentenced one Paul Afari, 22, a Carpenter to 25 years imprisonment for robbing one Ama Brema Busia of various sums of money at Abelemkpe in Accra.

Paul, who pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy and robbery, said he used his share of the booty to purchase a motorbike.

He is to serve 15 years for conspiracy and 25 years for robbery and both sentences are to run concurrently.

Presiding judge, Mr Francis Obiri giving his sentence said he had considered the fact that the convict did not waste the time of the court but indicated that the amount involved was huge and as such the convict deserved a harsher sentence.

He ordered that the motorbike be sold and the money given to the complainant under the supervision of the court registrar.

Prosecuting Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Moses Atibilla said Paul is a Carpenter and resides at Lapaz, while his accomplices Godsway Nutakor and Nana Yaw Asare are both unemployed and reside at Alhaji Tabora.

He said Godsway was a former house help of the complainant and that on March 22 at about 0720 hours the complainant left home for church service at Calvary Methodist Church at Adabraka, leaving behind three of her house helps.

He said soon after the complainant had left, the house boy one Simon Tawiah, heard a knock at the main gate where he met Paul and Yaw standing.

The prosecution said Paul told Simon that they had been called by Ama to come and take measurements of the roofing as she wanted to re-roof the building, and the houseboy permitted them into the house.

He told the court that the two went for a ladder and placed it at the back of the complainant’s bedroom, climbed to the roof top and later descended.

ACP Atibilla said as soon as Paul descended, he held the houseboy and slapped him twice in the face, ordering him to lie down and pulled a knife threatening to stab him if he resisted.

He said Paul and Yaw tied Tawiah’s hand behind him with a cloth, blindfolded him with a cellotape and covered his mouth. They later escorted him to the sitting room where they ordered him to lie down under the guard of Yaw.

According to the prosecution, Paul and Godsway went to the kitchen and the guestroom to attack the two house girls and inflicted knife wounds on them when they refused to hand over the key to their mistress’s bedroom to them.

The two tied the house girls and blindfolded them as well with cello tape and escorted them to join the house boy.

ACP Atibilla said they forcibly opened the bedroom door of Ama with a pinch bar and harmer, entered the room, ransacked the place, forced open her metal safe and eventually made away with $35,500, 3,000 Euros, 300 Pounds and GH? 25,000.00.

He said upon intelligence, the police arrested Paul at Worawora in the Volta Region, and he admitted the offence stating that he used GH? 15,000.00 out of the GH? 16,000.00 he had as his share of the booty to purchase the motorbike.