Specialised Wedding Gifts Thief Pleads Not Guilty

An unemployed woman, who allegedly stole an amount of GH�15,000 from a couple at their wedding reception at La, a suburb of Accra, has been remanded into custody, after she was arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court. Emelia Appiah allegedly acted as one of the wedding planners and managed to make away with the said amount during the wedding reception, but was arrested after trying to use the same pretence as a wedding planner at another wedding in Dansoman. Emelia Appiah pleaded not guilty to the charge of stealing before the court presided over by Mr. Romaine Abeley Abbey and she is expected to re-appear before the court on August 28, 2013. The facts of the case is that on April 2013, the wedding day of the complainant, Emelia Appiah went to the bride�s house and imposed herself as a member of the team, who were to dress the bride, but was driven away since at that time the bride had already dressed up. The prosecutor, Inspector W. Nyadiky told the court that Emelia Appiah later followed up to All Souls Baptist Church, South La, where the wedding was taking place and again impersonated Salomey Boatemaa, a witness in this case, who was part of the team in charge of the gift table. According to him, Emelia Appiah was allowed by the church clerks to arrange the gift table upon imposing herself on the team at the gift table. �After the wedding ceremony, all the gifts made up of envelopes, containing a sum of GH�15,000 and parcels were put together and taken to the reception grounds at 37 Military Hospital Army Officers Mess. The Emelia Appiah during conversation with another witness in this case, introduced herself as a course mate to the bride at University of Cape Coast�, the prosecutor told the court. He stated that after the wedding reception the parcels and the record books were bounded together separated from the bag containing the envelops and as the witnesses were packing the parcels into the wedding cars, Emelia Appiah stole the bag containing the envelope and bolted in a waiting taxi cab. Inspector Nyadiky further indicated that on April 21, 2013, the complainant lodged a complaint to that effect at Cantonment Police Station and informed his friends to be on the lookout. He said on August 17, 2013, Emelia Appiah was spotted in another wedding reception at Dansoman at the Margaret Mary Preparatory School by one of the witnesses in this case. According to the prosecutor, Emelia Appiah, with the same modus operandi was seen busily receiving parcels, when the witness raised an alarm and she was arrested and sent to the Dansoman Police Station.