Kwadwo Ofori Limited, a leading brand in the provision of building materials, have had five of its employees remanded for allegedly stealing building materials worth ¢2,615, 011.
The accused persons are 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 -Boafo, a cashier.
The accused have pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiracy to commit a crime namely stealing.
The court presided over by Samuel Bright Acquah has remanded them into police custody to enable further investigations after the accused persons’ respective lawyers argued for bail.
The prosecution led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Augustus Yirenkyi, also opposed the bail application, saying the matter was under investigation.
However, the case has been adjourned to January 5, 2023.
The prosecution narrated that the complainant, Frank Kwadwo Ofori is the Director of Kwadwo Ofori Enterprise Limited, Accra and the accused persons are his employees whom he trained to manage his various branches.
The accused persons were formally working in Accra and they were later transferred to Cape Coast to manage a branch.
The prosecution stated that the accused persons were supplied with iron rods, cement, binding wires, and nails to be sold by the complainant in large quantities. It said the complainant trusted the accused persons, especially Nangba, his sales manager of the Cape Coast branch.
The prosecution said on or before September 2022, the accused persons requested for bags of cement to be supplied to them.
However, the complainant realised that the accused persons had about 10,000 bags of cement in stock. The complainant, therefore, became sceptical as to why the accused persons were requesting bags of cement among others.
The Prosecution told the Court that the complainant through one of his employees got to know that the accused had sold the bags of cement that they had in stock, but they had failed to account for them.
It said the complainant became alarmed and together with his accounting officers conducted stocking at the Cape Coast branch and it was revealed “a net shortage of stock to the tune of ¢2,615,011.30”.
The accused persons were, therefore, invited to the head office in Accra to be interrogated.
According to the prosecution, the accused persons admitted having stolen items such as iron rods, bags of cement, binding wires, and nails to the tune of ¢2,568,770.40 and wrote in an undertaking to refund the money to the complainant.
However, on December 20, 2022, the complainant reported the matter to the Police and the accused persons were arrested.
The prosecution said the accused persons in their caution statement admitted the offence.
“Investigations revealed that the accused persons had sold the materials which were supplied to them without accounting for them,” he said.