2 PORTERS JAILED FOR THEFT (Page 16)

Story: Nana Konadu Agyeman, Koforidua

TWO young porters who outwitted their Lebanese employer and stole GH¢5,000 belonging to him have been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment each with hard labour by a Koforidua circuit court.
The convicts, Kwasi Ayembi, 21, and Michael Ayari, 22, were said to have hidden another porter, Kofi Dada, 21, currently on the run, under a table in the shop of their employer who, unknowingly, locked up the shop at the close of the day and went home.
Dada then managed to break the safe and stole the money.
The convicts, who were charged with conspiracy to steal, unlawful entry and stealing, pleaded guilty to the charges and were sentenced on their own pleas.
Presenting the facts of the case, ASP Theophilus Nyandu told the court, presided over by Mr Robert Adjei Gyan, that on December 19, 2007, the complainant, Mr Ali Khawajale, the Lebanese employer, reported to the police that his shop, which contained assorted food items, had been broken into by some people who made away with GH¢5,000.
According to ASP Nyandu, Mr Khawajale said after close of work on December 18, last year, he locked up the shop and went home but when he opened it the following day, he detected the loss of the money and suspected the two convicts, Ayembi and Ayari, to be the people who might have broken into the store.
The prosecutor related that the police immediately caused the arrest of the two convicts and when a search was conducted in their room, the police retrieved GH¢580.
In their caution statement, according to ASP Nyandu, Ayembi and Ayari said that Dada was made to hide under a table in the shop after close of work on December 18, last year, thereby enabling him to have access to the safe from which he stole the GH¢5,000.
Passing sentence, the court was of the view that the action of the convicts could have severely undermined the ability of their employer to raise sufficient money to pay the salaries of other employees of his enterprise.