Five employees of Kwadwo Ofori (K.Ofori) Limited, a leading brand in building materials distribution, remanded for stealing building materials worth GHC 2,615,011, have been granted bail.
Appearing before an Accra Circuit Court, the court admitted the five employees to bail in the sum of GHS1 million bail with three sureties each to be justified with landed property.
The Court ordered accused persons namely Santa Nangba, a 27-year-old Sales Manager, Peter Bawla, a 28-year-old Supervisor; William Dagadu, 27, Michael Jeffery, a 28-year-old IT Technician and Felix Ofori, a cashier, first sureties should provide property within the Greater Accra or Central Regions.
Additionally, the Court said the second sureties should be public servants earning not less than GHS3,000.
Again, it ordered that the third sureties of each of the accused persons should be family members.
The accused persons were also ordered by the Court to report to the Police every Wednesday.
The bail of the accused persons came up after they had made their second appearance before the Court.
A team of lawyers also made various applications for bail as their clients spent days in custody.
The five accused persons had been charged with conspiracy to commit a crime, to wit, stealing and stealing.
They have denied the charges before the court presided over by Mr Samuel Bright Acquah.
The accused persons are expected to reappear on January 23, 2023.
Earlier, Superintendent of Police Augustus Yirenkyi narrated that the complainant, Frank Kwadwo Ofori is the Director of Kwadwo Ofori Limited, Accra and the accused persons are employees whom he trained to manage his various branches.
The Prosecution said the accused persons were working in Accra and they were later transferred to Cape Coast to manage a branch.
It said the accused persons were supplied with iron rods, cement, binding wires and nails by the complainant to be sold in large quantities.
The Prosecution narrated that the complainant trusted the accused persons especially Nangba, his sales manager of the Cape Coast branch.
According to the Prosecution on or before September 2022, the accused persons’ requested bags of cement.
The complainant, however, realised that the accused persons had about 10,000 bags of cement in stock.
The Prosecution said the complainant, therefore, became sceptical as to why the accused persons were requesting bags of cement, among others.
It said the complainant through one of his employees got to know that the accused persons had sold the bags of cement in stock, but they failed to account for them.
The Prosecution said the complainant became alarmed and together with his accounting officers conducted stocking at the Cape Coast branch, revealing “a shortage of stock to the tune of GHC2,615,011.30.”
It said accused persons were therefore invited to the head office for interrogation.
The Prosecution told the Court that the accused persons admitted stealing items such as iron rods, bags of cement, binding wires, and nails to the tune of GHS2,568,770. 40 and wrote in an undertaking to refund the money to the complainant.
On December 20, 2022, the Prosecution said the complainant reported the matter to the Police and the accused persons were picked up.
The Prosecution said, “investigations revealed that the accused person had sold the materials which were supplied to them without accounting for them.”
