Three ladies jailed seven years for stealing

Kumasi, Sept. 2, GNA - The sympathetic scenes created by three young ladies, who sobbed uncontrollably in court could not stop the law from taking its course, when a jail sentence, totalling seven years was slapped on them by a Kumasi circuit court on charges of stealing and conspiracy to steal a mobile phone and cash. Faustina Acquaa Ayele, Abigail Tawiah, both unemployed and Nafisa Issah, a trader, were convicted on their own pleas and had already been in remand for two weeks, when they first appeared before the court earlier on.

Mr Adutwum Mmorosa, presiding judge, sentencing the convicts said the sentence is supposed to serve as a deterrent to help curb the high spate of stealing, especially mobile phones in the metropolis. Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Janet Oseiwaah told the court that both Faustina and Abigail were friends, who lived at Abossey Okai in Accra, came down to visit their friend Nafisa, who had just given birth and resides at Moshie Zongo in Kumasi.

She said on August 1, the three went to shop for the new born baby at a children's wear shop located at Adum, the hub of business and commercial activities in the city, where they met one Eunice Mintah, complainant, a medical student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

Chief Inspector Oseiwaah said the complainant, who had gone there to visit the shop owner, who is her friend, left her purse containing a Samsung mobile phone and a cash of 300,000 cedis on the shop's counter. Luck eluded Faustina, who hurriedly removed the mobile phone worth three million cedis and the cash from Eunice purse, but she was quickly spotted by a shop assistant, whiles the other two pretended to be busily examining a child's wear.

She said the shop assistant, who later realised that the purse belonged to the complainant, helped to apprehend the three of them. Faustina and Abigail had three years incarceration each, whiles Nafisa had one year.