2 get 4 years for stealing electrical wires

Two persons, accused of stealing electrical wiring worth GH¢10,000 in an uncompleted building, at Oyarifa, in Greater Accra Region, have been sentenced to two years imprisonment each by Adentan Circuit Court.

Kweku Sebastian Kpogo and Solash Quansah, both unemployed, who told the court that they committed the offence because they were hungry, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit crime to wit stealing and stealing.

 Kpogo told the court presided over by Mrs Sedinam Awo Balokah that: “It is hunger that compelled us to steal, please forgive us.We will look for a better job, forgive us. We will not do that again.”

The court told accused that “it is a flimsy excuse for a lazy man,” adding, “we would be in a jungle and anyone who is hungry, will get up and go and steal.”

 The court convicted accused persons on their pleas, saying it considered their quick admission of guilt, the fact that they were first offenders and the fact that they did not waste the court’s time and the items in question had been retrieved.

The facts of prosecution are that the complainant is a marketing officer residing at Adenta New Site and accused, unemployed, had no permanent place of abode.

It said the complainant had an uncompleted storey building at Oyarifa, which was recently ‘wired.’

 Prosecution said on February 2, this year, at about 1822 hours, the accused went to the complainant’s uncompleted building and pulled out all the electrical wiring from the conduit and packed their booty in a sack.

When the accused were leaving the complainant’s premises with the booty, neighbours saw them and raised the alarm resulting in their arrest. -GNA