Kwabena Ayivor, a 31-year-old man, has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in hard labour by the Tarkwa Circuit Court.
Ayivor had been jailed on two different occasions for siphoning fuel from vehicles, and the 10-year jail term was slapped on him for attempting to commit the same offence again.
He pleaded guilty.
Prosecuting, Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Amponsah told the court presided over by Mr Samuel Obeng Diawuo that the complainant, Kwame Andzie, was a taxi driver and resident at Hill Top Junction at Tarkwa while the convict was a labourer who live at Akyempim, also in Tarkwa.
Prosecutor said the complainant and his colleague taxi drivers, who had been parking their vehicles by the roadside at the Hill Top Junction for some time now, had been experiencing theft of cash, pen drive and other items from their vehicles.
He said due to this, the complainant and the affected drivers resolved to monitor their vehicles to apprehend those behind the theft.
Detective Amponsah said on August 30 at about 0130 hours, the complainant and one Kwadwo Asamoah saw Ayivor and his accomplice, Adu Kwasi, now at large, in front of one Alice Amoah’s store at the Hill Top Junction trying to open it, but they run away when they sighted a vehicle approaching.
The prosecutor said the convict later came back and was arrested by the complainant and his friend.
He said when a search was conducted in the bag Ayivor was carrying, they found a spanner and knife together with a hose which he had tied to his chest and was handed over to the police.