Salesman gets three years for stealing

By: Helena Selby

A former salesman of Don Emilio Company Limited in Accra has been sentenced to three years in hard labour by an Accra High Court for refusing to account for the loss of GH¢11,002.40 belonging to the company.

The accused person, Edmund Tenkorang, blamed the loss on customers of the company, who he claimed, owe the company the said amount. He however, was not able to give the names of the customers he claimed were the cause of the loss.

He was charged with stealing, contrary to section 24 (1) of the criminal code, and pleaded not guilty to the charge leveled against him before the court presided over by Justice C.A Wilson. The court, however, found him guilty, after the prosecution proved its case beyond all reasonable doubt. He was sentenced and ordered by the court to refund the said amount to the company.

According to the court, the manager, in his evidence, indicated that a meeting was held with the accused person and the Managing Director of the company, where the accused was asked how long it would take to pay the money. The accused, however, promised to pay within three months, but couldn’t fulfill his promise.

The evidence of the police investigator further disclosed that the accused person claimed he delivered the goods to customers in Kumasi and Obuasi, but was not paid, and based on that, they conducted further investigations.

“Though the accused person insisted that he supplied goods to various customers at different locations, and that there were unpaid debts owed by some customers, the accused person could not provide any documentation to support his defense. Given the fact that he could not account for it, the only logical inference was that the accused person appropriated the monies he received from the customers, and failed to pay them into the company’s accounts.

The accused person could have saved himself of the prosecution of the charges by repaying the amount he wrongly appropriated to the company,” the court emphasised.

The presiding judge, in his judgment, stated that the police investigator said in Kumasi the accused person led them to only one woman whom he alleged to be one of the customers, but investigations revealed the said woman owed GH¢300 plus.

According to the court, the police investigator noted that at Obuasi, the accused person could not show the investigative team any customer, but rather showed a particular spot where an alleged customer used to work.

Additionally, the investigator noted that investigations in both Kumasi and Obuasi could not trace any of the alleged customers the accused person had mentioned.

However, the accused person, in his defense, noted that he supplied goods to various customers of the company at different locations, including Obuasi and Kumasi. He said any money he received from the customers was paid into the company’s account.

According to him, he paid with a number of cheques, some of which were dishonoured.