From Nana Konadu Agyeman, Koforidua.
A 35-year-old chartered accountant, who registered his company in the name of his employer’s company and channeled cheques issued in the company’s name into his account, has been sentenced to a month imprisonment with hard labour by a High Court at Koforidua.
Peter Nana Addai Sarpong, was said to have opened an account in the name of Mac Dic Investment with the Koforidua branch of the HFC Bank, into which he paid three cheques valued at GH¢8,000, issued in the name of the Mac Dic Royal Plaza Hotel, where he was a staff.
Sarpong, who was charged with one count of stealing for which he pleaded not guilty, was said to have deleted all records of transactions of the hotel stored on the company’s computer in respect of the operations of the hotel.
Prosecuting, a State Attorney, Mr Fred Tetteh, told the court, presided over by Mr Justice G. S. Suurbaareh, that Sarpong, who is an accountant by profession and lives in Accra, on May 12, 2009, deserted his post and went into hiding.
He said Sarpong’s employer detected that he had stolen three cheques valued at about GH¢8,000 that were paid to the Mac Dic Royal Plaza Hotel by the clients.
The prosecutor said a complaint was made to the police and during investigations, it came to light that Sarpong forged the official company registration certificate of Mac Dic Enterprises Limited with a fake name, Kobina Abanfo, which he used to open a bank account.
Mr Tetteh said Sarpong was later traced and arrested. Giving the sentence, the court said the audit report indicated that five other cheques paid to the Mac Dic Hotel were not disposed into the hotel’s account and could not be traced, noting that those cheques covered the sum of GH¢3,639, which formed part of the sum of GH¢8,000 for which the convict had been charged.
The court said that although the amount involved did not appear too great, the way in which the convict planned and executed the crime, as well as the clever manner in which he tried to prevent the detection by deleting all information from the computer, coupled with the fact that he used his professional knowledge as a chartered accountant to commit the crime made him a very dangerous person.
It further indicated that, while it was true that the convict was a young man, there was nothing to show that it was his “first brush with the law”, adding “such a person should not be made to serve a long sentence and in the absence of grievous circumstances, he should not even suffer a custodial sentence.
“However, as indicated, the manner in which he planned, executed and tried to cover up the crime make him a potential danger to society and should be made to realise that the criminal path he had undertaken to travel at 35 years of age is not profitable, but only leads to doom, a bit of custodial sentence is necessary to make him realise his folly”, the court emphasised.
However, the Attorney General has appealed against the sentence which it considered as lenient.
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