An Accra Circuit Court on Friday sentenced one Francis Wiekin Bening, a Computer Technician, to one year imprisonment for stealing and forgery.
Francis stole 10 Ghana Commercial Bank cheques, with the face value of GH? 25,000.00 belonging to one Professor Raymond Bagulo Bening, forged his signature and withdrew the said amount.
Francis pleaded guilty to the charges and was convicted accordingly.
However his accomplice Jerry Kweku, an estate developer, who was charged with abetment of crime, pleaded not guilty.
He was remanded by the Court to reappear on August 21.
Prosecuting Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) A.A Yirenkyi told the Court that the complainant, Professor Bening is a lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, whiles Francis is a Computer Technician and the senior son of the complainant.
He said Jerry is an Estate Developer and an intimate friend of Francis and they all reside at Abelemkpe.
He said on June 3, the complainant was alerted by his bankers, Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), Legon branch, that a cheque number 422138 with face value of GH? 4,000.00 dated June 2, 2015, had been presented for payment by Jerry on June 3, with a forged signature.
The prosecution said upon this information, the complainant lodged a complaint at the Tesano Police Station for investigations.
He said the complainant further discovered that other cheque leaves had been stolen from his cheque book and he then contacted the bank for his statement, which confirmed that eight cheque leaves all with face value of GH? 25,000.00 had been used to debit his account and credited to the account of Jerry at Ecobank- Kotobabi branch, and to his wife’s account at GCB- Aflao branch.
ASP Yirenkyi told the Court that investigations disclosed that, Francis stole the complainant’s cheque leaves and forged his signature to enable them to credit Jerry’s account, and they withdrew same at the GCB and Ecobank with an ATM Card and shared the money.
He said the two were arrested for investigations and in their caution statements they both admitted the offence and pleaded for forgiveness.
