Driver charged for stealing boss’ GH¢39,000

A driver of a retired military officer has been charged with allegedly stealing cheque leaflets and forging his boss’ signature to withdraw money from the officer’s bank accounts.

Joshua Essiabra is said to have withdrawn a sum of GH¢39,000 from the said bank account.

The accused pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of forgery of documents and stealing, when he appeared before an Accra Circuit Court yesterday.

The court, presided over by Ms Afia Owusu Appiah, granted him bail in the sum of GH¢40,000 with two sureties, one of which must be a public servant.

Hearing continues on July 9, 2020.

Prosecution’s facts

Presenting the facts of the case, Chief Inspector William Boateng said the complainant, Alexander Bediako Donkor, the retired military officer in the case, had been sending the accused person to withdraw money on his behalf at the Spintex Road branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) Limited for years.

He added that on January 8 and January 14, 2019, the complainant received text messages from the bank on his account balance, which was lower than he expected.

As a result, the complainant drew the attention of the bankers to it.

Chief Inspector Boateng said the accused person was mentioned as the person who withdrew money on the aforementioned dates.

According to the prosecution, the complainant became worried as he denied sending the accused person to withdraw money on the said dates and subsequently reported the case to the Sakumono Police for investigation, leading to the accused person’s arrest.

Investigations

The prosecution added that during investigations, it was detected that nine GCB Bank cheque leaflets with their counterfoils were missing from the complainant’s cheque book.

Chief Inspector Boateng stated: “The accused person forged the complainant’s signature, wrote his name and an amount on the cheque leaflets on different occasions, took advantage of his familiarity with the bank officials, presented the cheques and succeeded in withdrawing a sum of GH¢39,000 from the complaint’s GCB account.”

The accused person in his caution statement admitted the offence and told the police that he spent part of the money in acquiring a one and a half plot of land, sand and cement blocks at his village, Amosima in the Central Region.