Phone cards thief jailed 36 months

An unemployed man, accused of phone cards theft, has been sentenced to 36 months imprisonment in hard labour by the Juaso Circuit Court, presided over by Mr Alex Obeng Asante.

Sampson Mbango, 25, would buy credit recharge cards from vendors, smartly replace these with fake ones, and return the counterfeit cards to the vendors with the excuse that he is no longer buying the cards.

He was convicted after he pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing.

Police Chief Inspector Joseph Obeng said, Mbango bought a GH¢ 10 Vodafone credit card from a vendor, Grace Asamoah, at Konongo on June 23.

Within minutes, the convict returned to tell the complainant that he was no longer buying the cards, and took back his money.

The prosecution said, not quite long, another customer showed up and the card was re-sold to him and that was when the trouble began.

Attempts to load the credit onto his phone failed, and it was detected that the card was not genuine.

Mbango attempted to use the same trick on a second vendor, Stephenson Owusu, later that same day, but he was unsuccessful, arrested and handed over to the police.

Grace on hearing of his arrest, rushed to the police station to also make a formal report against him.