A circuit court at Tarkwa imposed a fine of 240 Ghana cedis on a 26-year-old sales man, Sylvester Appiah, or in default two years imprisonment for stealing 3,600 Ghana cedis.
He pleaded guilty.
Police Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Amponsah told the court presided over by Mr. Samuel Obeng Diawuo that the complainant, who lives at Akoon, a suburb of Tarkwa, is a businessman who deals in electrical appliances while the accused was a formal employee to the complainant from January to March this year.
He said in January, the complainant engaged the service of the accused as a sales boy but he suddenly vacated the job.
Chief Insp. Amponsah said on May 26, the complainant detected that his Takoradi branch of the Ecobank ATM card had been stolen and he reported the matter to authorities of the bank’s branch in Tarkwa and his account was blocked.
Prosecution said on May 29, the complainant went to the Tarkwa branch of Ecobank to withdraw money and realized that 200 Ghana cedis had been withdrawn from his account that same day.
Chief Insp. Amponsah said further checks on the bank statement of the complainant revealed that from April to May 29 this year, the accused had withdrawn 3,600 Ghana cedis from the complainant’s account.
The prosecution said the accused in a caution statement admitted withdrawing 100 Ghana cedis from the complainant’s account in April.
Chief Insp. Amponsah told the court that Appiah tried to withdraw money for the second time from the bank’s ATM machine at Market Circle branch in Takoradi but the machine withheld the card.**