An Accra Circuit Court has sentenced a painter to 15 years imprisonment in hard labour for robbing a woman of her Toyota Corolla.
Emmanuel Kwesi Brown, who was also charged with unlawful entry, causing unlawful damage, stealing and possessing instrument intended for unlawful entry, pleaded guilty with explanation to all the charges.
Brown explained to the Court presided over by Mrs. Ruby Naa Adjeley Quaison that he needed money to take care of his sick mother, hence his action.
Police Chief Inspector Gulliver Kwabena Tenkorang told the court that Madam Bennie Aniagyei, a retiree is the complainant in the case and resides at Community 14, whilst Brown lived at Ada, all in the Greater Accra Region.
On August 16, this year, at about 1300 hours, Brown who wore a military camouflage top, had in his possession a bag containing an axe, nylon rope and a screw driver, scaled the complainant’s front wall onto her compound whilst she was away.
He said Brown went behind complainant’s house and tore the trap nets behind her window and used a concrete block to damage the iron bars of the window giving him access to her room.
The Prosecution said Brown also caused damage to four doors inside the complainant’s house, entered the rooms, ransacked the wardrobes and stole GHC8,600.00, a Samsung J3 and a Nokia C3 mobile phones as well as a Toshiba laptop computer and kept them in his bag.
He said the convict went to place the bag under a mango tree on the compound and when he heard the woman returning to the house in her car, he hid behind a wall in the complainant’s room.
Chief Inspector Tenkorang said when the complainant opened the door, Brown held her at gun point and warned her not to make noise. He asked her to surrender her Samsung J6 cellular phone and the ignition keys to her Toyota Corolla saloon car.
He said the convict then locked up the complainant in a store room and left but she was set free by her husband who came to the house later.
A report was made to the police at Dodowa and Brown was traced to Dodowa through the complainant’s phone tracker, when Dodowa Police received information from the Sakumono Police that Brown had hit an unregistered motorbike with the stolen vehicle.
The convict, who posed as a military officer, left the car keys where he hit the bike owner and took the motorbike, he noted.
The bike’s owner also went to the Dodowa police to lodge a complaint and handed over the car, which led to Brown’s arrest.
A search in the car revealed the Samsung J6 phone, prisons’ service camouflage uniform dyed into military colour, one prisons’ officer’s belt and beret, a pair of military desert boots, a flash light, wheel spanner, kitchen knife, screw driver, pincers and personal effects.
The complainant identified Brown upon his arrest and he admitted the offence in his caution statement.
By Gifty Amofa, GNA
