The Kibi Circuit court in the Eastern Region, presided over by Peter Oppong-Boahene, has jailed a 41-year-old spare parts dealer, Hassan Ziblim, to 20 years imprisonment for stealing a truck and dismantling it into spare parts for sale.
The facts of the case presented by the Prosecutor Detective Sergeant Kaitoo Bernard are that the complainant Salifu Kassim is a driver residing at Pekyi Number 2 in Kumasi while the convict is a scrap dealer residing at Sukura in Accra.
The second accused person Hussein Mubarak, 30, is also an old spare parts dealer who resides at Aboabo in Kumasi.
In the month of January 2022, the complainant was in charge of Man diesel trailer truck with registration number AW3814-13 loaded with cashew from Kumasi to Accra but on reaching Paradise Resort at Akyem Nsutem near Bunso, the truck engine broke down.
The cashew was offloaded into a different truck to Accra.
The faulty truck was parked within the yard of Paradise Resort awaiting a new engine to be fixed.
On March 4, 2021, the convict Alhassan Ziblim clandestinely managed to tow the truck to Accra and cut it into spare parts.
On March 5, 2021, the convict sold the engine, axel, gearbox and trailer flat body at a cost of Ghc 60,000.00 to the second accused person Hussein Mubarak.
The second accused person after buying same sent the engine, and axel gearbox to his spare parts shop at Kumasi -Suame Magazine.
The trailer flat body was sent to Ashaiman.
The driver of the vehicle in the company of his caretaker Frederick Ofori reported the case to the police.
The mechanics who has been working on the said truck engine visited the second accused person’s shop to buy spare parts and in the process found the engine belonging to the said truck in the shop.
Witness confronted the second accused person and he mentioned Alhassan Ziblim as the person who sold the said parts to him.
On April 13, 2021, upon interrogation, the second accused person gave the police hint of the hide-out of the convict leading to his arrest in Accra Central and brought to the Bunso police station in the Eastern region.
In the course of the investigation, the exhibits were retrieved from the second accused person in Kumasi and Ashaiman respectively.
They were charged and arraigned, however, after almost a year of full trial, Alhassan Ziblim was found guilty convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for the offence of stealing contrary to section 124(1) of Criminal offences Act 1960(Act 29).
However, the second accused Hussein Mubarak was discharged after a submission of no case was filed.