An entrepreneur who reportedly stole GH $100,000 from a businesswoman while pretending to import a 40-foot container of used home appliances from Germany has been granted bail by an Accra Circuit Court. Madam Annabel Osei entered a not guilty plea to charges of deceiving by false pretense and conspiracy to commit crime.
The prosecution, Police Chief Inspector Benson Benneh, did not object to the defense attorney’s request for bail but urged the court to approve the accused person’s request for bail so that she would be required to appear in court at any time. He said, “the accused person does not have a fixed place of abode because she took the police to a wooden structure where she lives”.
As a result, the accused was granted bail in the amount of GH$200,000.00 with three sureties by the court presided over by Mrs. Evelyn Asamoah. One of the sureties must be a civil servant, according to a court order. Also, the court ordered the prosecution to file and serve all disclosures and witness testimonies. Her accomplice, Mr. Kwaku Boadi, the accused person’s father, is still at large at this time. The case will now be addressed on April 12, 2023.
The prosecution informed the court that Madam Margaret Nelson Coffie, the complainant, was a businesswoman who lived in Awoshie, Accra, whereas Madam Osei did not. The prosecution said about six months ago, one Rita Pokuaa, a witness in the case, introduced Osei, and her father to the complainant as an importer, who imported goods from Germany to Ghana.
It said the accused person and her father convince the complainant that if she could pay GH₵150,000.00 to them, they could supply her a 40-footer-container of second-hand home appliances such as microwaves, blenders, television sets, rice cookers, kettles etc. from Germany. The prosecution said in the process, the accused person and her father collected a cash sum of GH₵100,000.00 from the complainant through the accused person’s ADB’s Bank accounts with a promise of delivering the said goods within two weeks.
According to the report, the accused individuals fled after receiving the specified sum, and the complainant made numerous unsuccessful attempts to find them before filing a police report on November 30, 2022. The accused was detained a month later, according to the prosecution, and in a cautionary statement, she accepted the crime, paid back GHC 20,000 to the police, and gave the money to the complainant.
