A teacher who falsified the signature of St Luke Catholic Hospital at Apam and unlawfully withdrew GH¢14,500.00 from its account at Gomoa Community Bank has been jailed one-year in hard labour by a Circuit Court in Cape Coast.
Prince Kofi Selby, 32 denied the charges of stealing and forgery and pleaded not guilty was found guilty by the court after months of trial.
The Court presided over by Mrs Afia Nyarko Adu-Amankwah in addition, ordered the convict to refund the stolen amount.
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Prosecuting, Senior State Attorney, Vincent Nyinaku told the court that one Dr. Frank Odame, Medical Director at the hospital and Mr Emmanuel Bosompim, the Administrator are the complainants.
The hospital operates an account at the Gomoa Community Bank where the convict also has an account.
The Medical Doctor, the Nurse Manager and the Accountant are the signatories to the hospital’s account and two of the signatories could sign for withdrawal at any time.
The Prosecution said on Friday, March 9, 2018, the hospital requested the financial statement of their account and realised there had been separate unauthorised withdrawals from it.
It was detected that two withdrawals of GH¢4,800.00 and GH¢4980.00 were made on Saturday, March 3, 2016, while GH¢4,820.00 was also withdrawn.
Further checks by the hospital authorities revealed that the two signatures on the cheques were not signed by any of the three signatories despite its seeming likeness.
The hospital drew the attention of the police and the bank to the unauthorised withdrawals in their accounts and while some bank staff who were informed of the incident told the police they could identify the convict.
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Eventually, the convict was arrested at Mankessim and some employees of the bank identified him as the one who produced the unauthorised cheques and withdrew the monies.
A police search conducted in the convict’s room recovered two Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) deposit slips, one loan acceptance letter to Akatakyiman Rural Bank and a Komenda College of Education identity card.
Police forensic laboratory analysis of the original cheques used for the withdrawal from the bank, loan acceptance letter and the two deposit slips of ADB as well as the handwriting on the convict’s personal documents were the same as that on the three checks used for the withdrawal and he was charged with the offence, Mr Nyinaku added.