A 25-year-old man has been jailed 10 years imprisonment in hard labour for robbing a lady of her handbag containing GH¢1,000 and personal effects.
Isaac Appiah denied the offence but he was found culpable after trial.
Mr Kwabena Kodua Obiri-Yeboah, the presiding Judge, in passing the sentence, considered the fact that Appiah is a first time and young offender, and has been in Police custody for some time as well as his counsel’s plea for mitigation, hence the minimum sentence.
His counsel had prayed for mitigation indicating that nothing indicated during the trial that Appiah committed the offence and that as a first offender, the Court should consider the overcrowded prisons, which would make living there unbearable for inmates if he was given a lengthy sentence.
Meanwhile, one Godfred Yaw Okyere, his accomplice, is on the run.
Police Chief Inspector Dennis Terkpertey told the Court that Slyvia Nortey, a caterer, is the complainant.
Awudomey Cemetery
He said for some time, there had been a series of robberies at Awudome Cemetery in the night where victims had been robbed of their valuables including various sums of monies, laptops, mobile phones and other personal effects.
Chief Inspector Terkpertey said most of the victims had described the robber as a young man in a black outfit who usually hides behind the bushes at the Awudome cemetery close to the intersection.
The Court heard that when motorists slowed down to give way to oncoming vehicles, he then attacked and take away their valuables, and various efforts by the Police to get the said robber arrested had failed.
The Prosecution said that on July 16, 2019, at about 1920 hours, the complainant and her househelp Tanni Yiaransil alighted at the Bus Stop opposite the State Transport Corporation to pick a taxi home.
He said as soon as they boarded a tax cab at about 1930 hours and was bargaining on the fare, the convict in black apparel suddenly emerged from the Awudome Cemetery, where he physically attacked the complainant on the front passenger seat in a fierce attempt to snatch a black lady’s handbag she was carrying, but the complainant resisted.
Chief Inspector Terkpertey said Appiah twisted her hands, took the bag from her and run into a storm drain close by through to the Cemetery.
Street Robbery
The Prosecution said few minutes after the incident, the complainant met General Constable Evans Kwao Opei of the Kaneshie Police Station, who was on foot patrol duty and reported the incident to him.
He said the policeman began a search for the robber in the cemetery and when he exited the other end of it near the Awudome Estates, he saw Appiah having just emerged from the cemetery near a Gas Filling Station at Awudome.
Constable Open arrested him and a search retrieved GHC398.00 and the WIKO mobile phone valued at 2,000.00, as a result, he admitted the offence.
Chief Inspector Terkpertey said he was sent to the Kaneshie Police Station together with the exhibits, he also led police to the Cemetery where he had thrown away the bag, (containing a cheque book, voter’s ID card, among other documents) after taking out the money and the cellular phone.
The prosecution said investigations revealed that that night, he would dress in black attire and go to the Cemetery with the excuse that he was meeting with others at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.
He said police found out that he usually changed United States dollars on many occasions from a witness in the case, he keeps the phones stolen and throws away the sim cards, adding that, he wore three attires, all black and he would remove them one after the other after every expedition so as not to be caught.
The Convict during his evidence-in-chief told the court that he was framed by the Police officer, who was once his friend because he refused to be his informant upon request.
