Taxi driver jailed for stealing cocoa beans

A 25 year-old taxi driver who stole three bags of cocoa beans valued 636.00 Ghana cedis has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by the Tarkwa Circuit Court.

The accused, Prince Gyasi, was convicted on his own plea.

Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Florence Tawiah told the court presided over by Mr. Samuel Obeng Diawuo that the complainant, Wilberforce Koomson, is the District Manager of Olam Ghana Limited, a cocoa buying agency, at Kwabedu in Tarkwa.

She said on July 18, the complainant detected theft of three bags of dried cocoa beans valued 636 Ghana cedis from a truck parked at the company’s premises.

Later,  the complainant had information that the convict had been arrested by the police at Dompim, a town near Tarkwa, where he tried to sell the stolen item at the Produce Buying Company (PBC) depot.

The complainant went to the Dompim police station and identified the bags of cocoa beans as the ones that were stolen from his company’s premises that morning.

Chief Inspector Tawiah said a report was made to the police and during investigation it came out that Gyasi and two other accomplices, who are now at large, went to the company’s premises with a taxi and stole the cocoa.

While they were transporting it, the taxi skidded off the road and into a heap of sand, rendering it immobile.

The Prosecutor said Gyasi called a colleague taxi driver on phone to pick them up. The convict and his accomplices off loaded the three bags of cocoa beans into it and agreed that Gyasi should take the item to where he intended to sell it and the two promised to join him later in the day.

Gyasi sent the cocoa beans to P.B.C cocoa depot at Dompim and informed the security officer on duty that he wanted to sell his cocoa beans.

Chief Inspector Tawiah said the security officer was suspicious of Gyasi’s behavior and offered him a place to rest and quickly called his boss on phone and informed him about the issue.

The boss in turn informed the Dompim police and Gyasi was picked up together with the three bags of cocoa beans to the police station.

Source: GNA