Manager jailed five years for possessing counterfeit money

An Accra Circuit Court has sentenced Shubham Sharma, a manager, to five years’ imprisonment for possessing forged foreign and local currencies.

The court heard that Sharma had in his possession fake GH¢200 notes totaling GH¢1,976,000 and counterfeit US$100 notes amounting to US$191,900.

He dishonestly appropriated his employer’s money and replaced it with forged notes.

Prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Wisdom Alorwu, said the complainant, a businessman and Chief Executive Officer of a company manufacturing air refreshers, reported that Sharma, a former manager of the firm, had replaced genuine cash with counterfeit notes.

The court, presided over by Joseph Yennuban Kunsong, sentenced Sharma to four years for possessing fake local currency and five years for possessing fake foreign currency, to run concurrently.

Sharma, an Indian national, had already spent over nine months in custody.

The court ordered officials of the Ghana Police Service, Bank of Ghana and the Registrar of the court to ensure the destruction of the forged notes and directed that Sharma be deported after serving his sentence.

Prosecution said investigations revealed that Sharma, while responsible for receiving and keeping company cash, broke into his employer’s safe during a trip abroad and replaced unspecified amounts of genuine dollars with counterfeit notes.

Further checks at the company showed that Sharma had also replaced large sums of Ghana cedis with fake GH¢200 notes.

The Bank of Ghana later confirmed the seized notes were counterfeit.

Sharma admitted keeping the forged notes in the office during investigations.