The Half-Assini District Magistrate’s Court, in the Western Region, has fined a 35-year-old farmer from Tikobo Number One GH¢480.00 for stealing 650 pods dry coconuts valued at GH¢195.00.
The accused, Frank Ndede, who pleaded guilty for stealing would be in prison for 12 months in-hard-labour, when he defaults.
The Court, presided over by Mr Abdul Majid Illiasu, ordered him to compensate the complainant with GH¢120.00 before paying the fines.
Police Sergeant Isaac E. Otoo, in prosecuting, said complainant in the case was one Richard Atobrah, a farmer at Ellenda, near Tikobo Number One, while the accused was also a farmer at Tikobo Number One.
At about 1930hours on March 19, he said, the complainant went to his coconut plantation at Ellenda, where he found the accused busily collecting the dry nuts. However, he took to his heels on spotting the complainant.
The prosecution said the complainant, however, laid ambush in the farm and saw the accused emerge around 2200 hours with two torchlights to peel the coconut he had gathered, so he called some volunteers from Ellenda on his phone, who arrived an hour later when the accused was about to carry his booty away.
He was, consequently, apprehended and escorted to the Tikobo Number One Police Station with the exhibit and tools.
The prosecution said the accused admitted the offence in his Police caution statement and after investigation was charged with the offence.
Source: GhanaWeb
