Court remands driver for forgery

Bright Ampabeng, a driver, was on Wednesday remanded into police custody by an Accra Circuit Court for attempting to commit crime and possession of forged documents.

Bright was said to have attempted to commit crime to wit robbery and had in his possession a Ghanaian passport number H1180021 which was not genuine.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and is to reappear before the court presided over by Mr Francis Obiri on September 12.

Police Inspector Kwabena Adu told the court that on August 28 at about 0200 hours, Adenta police patrol team intercepted a Daewoo taxi driven by the accused person with four passengers on board.

He said during a search in the vehicle, the police retrieved a steel cutter and when the occupants were questioned as to where they got it from, the four passengers took to their heels leaving the driver.

He said the police arrested Bright and took him to the station for further investigations.

The prosecution said, few minutes later the complainant, Joseph Okpoti Adjei rushed to the police station and made a report.

He said the complainant reported that his security guard called him to say that whilst on duty at his guest house at about 0130 hours, he spotted five armed men on board the said taxi.

Police Inspector Adu said the guard said the occupants were breaking into a shop in front of the guest house and on seeing him, they fired gun shots to scare him away but he raised an alarm and they sped off.

He told the court that the security man wrote the registration number of the taxi, which tallied with the accused person’s taxi.

The prosecution said Bright refused to help the police trace the other suspects on the run.

He said in the course of investigation, a Ghanaian passport which bears the name of Awuni Anthony Danzimah was retrieved from the accused person.

Police Inspector Adu told the court that it was detected that the accused person removed the original picture of the owner of the passport and replaced it with his photograph.