A security man has been sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for stealing.
Kwabena Mensah, 27, pleaded not guilty on two counts of conspiracy to commit crime and robbery when he appeared before an Accra Circuit Court.
However, he was found guilty after full trial by the court, presided over by Mr Francis Obiri, and sentenced to five years on count one and 25 years on count two, to run concurrently.
Convicting him, the judge explained that Mensah’s jail term was based on the fact that he was a security officer who was expected to protect and not to harm.
The facts of the case as presented to the court by the prosecutor, Inspector Grace Bandoh, were that the complainant, Jasmine Kaur, an Indian, works at the Labone branch of Intercom Programming and Manufacturing Company (IPMC) as an administrator.
She said Mensah and David Moris, his accomplice, who is currently on the run, are security officers with Royal 2 Security Company Ltd but stationed in Kaur’s house at North Industrial Area in Accra.
The prosecutor said at about 12:30p.m. on February 1, 2015, Mensah and Moris, who had planned to rob Kaur, armed themselves with cutlasses and knocked on Kaur’s door.
Inspector Bandoh said Kaur opened the door without hesitation being very sure of her security.
When she opened the door, they pushed her, tied her hands, legs and mouth with pieces of cloth, subjected her to severe beatings and kept her in her bathroom.
The prosecutor said Moris watched over Kaur while Mensah searched the room.
They succeeded in taking away an amount of GH¢2,600, a laptop valued at GH¢2,500, and three mobile phones.
Later, they left to Kumasi, precisely Kejetia, where they shared the booty.
They, however, decided to use the laptop together.
From there, Mensah continued to Mampong, his hometown, where he allegedly spent GH¢200 on his father’s medical bills, dashed GH¢50 to his mother and credited his account with GH¢500, and spent the rest.
Inspector Bandoh said Mensah left to Tarkwa with the laptop and after using it for some time, the charger got spoilt and he decided to get a new one.
At the shop, the attendant who suspected the laptop to be stolen told Mensah he had run out of stock so he should come for it the next day.
The attendant alerted the police and when Mensah showed up to collect the laptop and charger, he was arrested.
He admitted the offence in his caution statement, and investigations led to the retrieval of the laptop and one of the phones.
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