A 63-year-old trader has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment by the Kwadaso Circuit Court in the Kwadaso Municipality of the Ashanti Region for stealing a tricycle and bread in Kumasi.
Adamu Alhassan pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing and was convicted on his own plea.
Presenting the facts of the case to the court, presided over by Mr Jephthah Appau, Police Chief Inspector David Opoku Kwabi said the complainant, Oduro Zakaria, was a bread baker and resident of Kumasi Ashtown, while Adamu lived at Ahwiaa in the Afigya Kwabre East Municipality.
In February 2024, the complainant loaded 114 loaves of bread valued at GH¢1,680 on his unregistered tricycle, worth GH¢35,000, for delivery to his customers at the Adehyeman lorry station in Kumasi.
According to the prosecution, the tricycle developed a fault, and Adamu introduced himself as the station master and offered to help push it to a safer place.
They both pushed the vehicle to the Kejetia MTN roundabout, where the complainant left it in Adamu’s care while he went to look for a mechanic.
When he returned an hour later with the mechanic, both the tricycle and the convict were missing. The complainant rushed back to the lorry station only to learn that Adamu was neither a worker nor a station master.
On August 28 this year, a witness in the case spotted the convict at the station and called the complainant, leading to Adamu’s arrest. He was handed over to the Ashanti Regional Anti-Armed Robbery Unit (AARU) of the Ghana Police Service.
In his caution statement, Adamu admitted stealing the tricycle and the bread. He told the police that he sold the tricycle to a scrap dealer at Bremang for GH¢700 and shared the bread with passers-by.
Following investigations, he was charged and brought before the court, where he was sentenced.
GNA