Housewife granted bail for involvement in USD 1,600 theft

A Nigerien housewife, Rashida  Raouia Mohammed, has been granted bail by an Adentan Circuit Court for her alleged involvement in a USD 1,600 robbery at a forex bureau in Accra.

On Tuesday, April 18, 2023, the first accused person, Rashida, pleaded not guilty to charges of aiding, abetting and stealing in the court presided over by Sedinam Awo Balokah.

The bail term was set by the judge at GH¢500,000 with one surety. Further orders were made by the judge for a bench warrant to be issued for the arrest of the second and third accused persons.

The case was adjourned to May 2, 2023 for further court procedures.

Facts of the case

Narrating the facts of the case, the prosecutor, Chief Inspector Maxwell Lanyo, said the complainant in the case was Bernard Asante Appiah, a cashier at Yasore Forex Bureau at the Accra Mall Shopping centre.

C/Insp. Lanyo said the accused, Rashida, resided at Spintex in Accra and that on February 2, 2023, she gave her unregistered blue-black coloured Kia Optima car to the other accused persons, Maamoud and Yasmin.

According to the prosecutor, Maamoud and Yasmin who were driven to the Accra Mall for shopping later went to the said forex bureau to change their cedis into dollars.

The prosecutor said Maamoud and Yasmin asked for a specific type of hundred-dollar bills, the ones issued in 2017.

The complainant then sampled through bundles of dollars and handed them over to Maamoud to sort out while the complainant attended to another customer. “Maamoud took advantage of this and flipped some of the dollar notes into his pocket after which he and the other suspect, Yasmin, left the shop,” the prosecutor said.

C/Insp. Lanyo said immediately after Maamoud and Yasmin had left, the complainant realised the money was short of USD 1,600 and so he ran after the suspects but they had hurriedly joined a waiting Kia Optima at the parking lot.

The prosecutor  said the complainant in an attempt to stop them held the rear passenger door but the driver sped off through the exit gate and even bumped into other cars in the process.

“The whole incident and the suspects were captured on CCTV footage.

During investigations, it was found that the first accused person, Rashida, owned the said get-away vehicle.

On March 15, 2023, Rashida was arrested through police intelligence at Spintex and the vehicle was impounded,” the prosecutor said.

C/Insp. Lanyo added that the said car was inspected and found to have been repaired with the rear passenger door glass removed and a rubber used to cover the window space.

The body of the car was also resprayed in the same blue-black colour and the DV plate hidden in the car.

The prosecutor told the court that the first accused person, Rashida, was asked to produce the sprayer who worked on the car but she refused.

She then refunded the amount involved, the USD 1,600, to the police and it was kept as an exhibit.

The prosecutor said after investigations, the accused persons were put before the court but the other two, Maamoud and Yasmin, were still on the run.