KNUST student fined GH¢2,000 for forgery

Hakeem Dankwah, a 31-year-old student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), who had earlier this month pleaded not guilty to false pretence and forgery of documents has changed his plea to guilty.

A Circuit Court in Cape Coast presided over by Mrs. Florence Kai Otu therefore on Tuesday convicted him to a fine of GH¢2,016.00 or 10 years imprisonment. He was also bonded to be of good behaviour for five years or be imprisoned for another two years.

Together with Hakeem in the dock are two others – Mercy Aboagyewa ,25, an unemployed Senior High School (SHS) graduate and Francis Bentil also 25, a pupil teacher who are also facing charges of processing forged documents and deceiving public officers.

Aboagyewa and Bentil have pleaded not guilty and are on bail to reappear on November 22.

The facts of the case are that in September this year, Hakeem posed as an official of the National Service Scheme (NSS) Cape Coast branch and introduced himself to Bentil and Aboagyewa that he could help register and get them posted for their national service at a fee of GH¢250.00 each.

It said Bentil and Aboagyewa managed to obtain voters ID cards belonging to Michael Asante and Lucy Asare respectively and replaced the photographs with theirs.

After presenting the said ID cards, Hakeem then registered them on the NSS website.

The court was told that on the day of registration at the Cape Coast district office, one Mr. Francis Acquah of the NSS detected a “data fraud” in their documents and referred them to the District Director, who upon critical examination informed the Police.

The three were later arrested and a search in Hakeem’s car revealed an exercise book, which contained 58 names with NSS numbers.

Source: GNA