By William Yaw Owusu
Thursday December 13, 2007
FIVE men who allegedly stole fuel coupons worth ¢9.1 billion belonging to the Ghana Oil Company (Goil) were yesterday granted ¢1 billion each with a surety to be justified by an Accra fast track high court.
A fuel coupon is a ticket or document that can be exchanged for a financial discount on fuel products.
The suspects are Emmanuel Amegashie, a production technician at Camelot Ghana Limited , printers of Goil’s coupons, Lawrence Avorgbedor and Ebenezer Chaerwe, both former employees of Camelot, Joshua Kwamia Asamoah, a taxi driver ad Samuel Koffi Addo, an employee of Goil.
The court, presided over by Justice Kobena Acquaye, is also trying two others implicated in the case but are on the run.
Amegashie, Avogbedor, Asamoah and Addo were initially arraigned before an Accra circuit court on November 9, where they were remanded into police custody.
Initially, the police gave the total value of fuel coupons stolen as ¢4.5 billion, but on November 20, the prosecution told the court that the figure had increase to 9.1 billion.
The prosecution then withdrew the case from the circuit court and arraigned them before the Fast Track High Court.
This time around, Charwe was added to the accused persons.
They have all been charged with conspiracy but Amegashie, Avorgbedor and Asamoah are facing an additional charge of stealing.
They pleaded guilty and will return to court on January 16, for the prosecution to call its first witness.
The prosecution’s case is that Amegashie entered Camelot’s hologram vault and was caught by security cameras installed at the place carrying a box containing some items from the room.
Officials of the company later detected that 30,000 leaflets of GH¢20 and GH¢15 denomination of Goil coupons valued at ¢9.1 billion, were missing.
The prosecution said Amegashie allegedly gave the coupons to Avorgbedor who printed serial numbers on them and handed them over to Asamoah.
The prosecution said Addo, who resigned in October as a pump attendant, was brought into the deal by Avorgbedor to sell the coupons.
On October 30, Addo went on his rounds selling the coupons but was arrested at Dansoman in Accra.
The prosecution said after his arrest, Addo led the police to pick upon Asamoah who mentioned Avorgbedor as an accomplice.
Avorgbedor allegedly admitted the offence and also led the police to arrest Amegashie.
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