Court convicts cashier for stealing

Kumasi, June 9, GNA- Kingsford Aidoo, a cashier of the Sinapi Aba Trust, a loans and credit company in Kumasi was on Tuesday convicted by a Kumasi circuit court for stealing 400 million cedis belonging to the company.

He pleaded guilty but the court deferred sentence to June 22. Police Chief Inspector John Afful told the court that during a routine check of the accounts of the company for May, 2004, it was found that it was short by 39 million cedis which the accused could not account for.

This prompted Mr Samuel Asare, the Human Resource Manager of the company to order an audit into the books of Aidoo between March 2001 and May 2004.

Chief Inspector Afful said the audited accounts showed a further shortfall of 361 million cedis within that period.

He told the court that the amount was in respect of repayment of loans to the company by its customers.

He said the Human Resource Manager personally contacted a number of customers who owed the company only to be told that they had paid the money to the convict and showed receipts covering payments.

He said when the manager also went through the company's receipt book, it indicated that the customers had actually paid back the loans but that Aidoo could not give any explanation for the shortfall.