Court jails two Graphic employees for stealing

Accra, Feb. 22, GNA - Two employees of Graphic Communication Group Limited (GCGL), who embezzled GH¢70,000 belonging to the company were o= n Monday sentenced to a total of 14 years in jail.

Daniel Tsagli, an accounts clerk, was found guilty of forgery of document, possessing forged documents and stealing and jailed 10 years. His accomplice Frank Oduro, also an accounts officer, was found guil= ty of aiding and abetment and jailed four years.

Handing down the sentence, the court presided over by Mrs Ivy Heward-Mills said Oduro claimed that it was an oversight that normally happened in the discharge of their duties to key in the money. Justice Heward-Mills said: "But here is the case that the money did not reflect in the accounts, neither was it found and therefore the two convi= cts planned to steal the money belonging to the company." The facts of the case as presented by Deputy Superintendent of Polic= e Paul Kwabena Friempong are that in April 2008, it came to light when the company was preparing its accounts book for the 2007 financial audit, tha= t between January 2007 and March 2008, an amount of GH¢70,000, which Tsag= li had collected from vendors and agents of the company had not been lodged at the bank. He said investigations into the matter revealed that Tsagli presente= d fake bank pay-in-slips to the head office.

Tsagli managed to secure a stamp purported to belong to Ghana Commercial Bank, stamped the pay-in-slips and forged the signatures of so= me tellers of the bank. He further explained that Oduro, whose duty it was to key-in these payments, intentionally failed to do so. They admitted the offences.