Man sentenced for contempt of court

Tema, Oct. 19, GNA - The Tema community tribunal on Tuesday sentenced a 37-year-old scrap dealer, Ibrahim Mohammed, to three months' imprisonment in hard labour for contempt of court.

The accused, who misunderstood the tribunal's ruling of discharge due to a technical error in prosecution, leapt from the dock, jumped over the wall of the courtroom and took to his heels.

He was, however, chased by policemen and re-arrested some 80 metres away from the courtroom. A charge of contempt of the tribunal, chaired by Captain Philip Agbeyome (Rtd), was immediately preferred against Mohammed who pleaded guilty. The tribunal sentenced him accordingly.

Earlier, the accused had pleaded guilty to the charge of defrauding Mr Kwame Amankwah, a driver, of Kojokrom in the Eastern Region of an amount 616,000 cedis.

The tribunal remanded him in prison custody to re-appear on October one for sentence. Mr Agbeyome expressed surprise at the behaviour of the accused, saying:

"we only told the police to consider the facts since we realised that the facts did not support your charge of fraud and you jumped to escape".

Prosecuting, Inspector Sarah Aggrey told the tribunal that on August six, this year, Mohammed employed the services of Amankwah, the complainant, to convey some metal scraps to Ferro Fabric, a steel manufacturing company in Tema.

According to the prosecution, the accused agreed to pay the complainant a fare of 500,000 cedis. The Accused then borrowed an additional 116,000 cedis from Amankwah with the excuse of paying him back in addition to the already agreed fare.

On reaching Tema, accused then told the complainant to wait at the factory gate for him to consult his manager for the money. But after waiting for almost three hours, Amankwah realised that he had been duped by Mohammed.

The complainant then went to enquire from the manager but he was told that the accused had been paid with a cheque and had left for the Social Security Bank (SSB) at Community Two.

Inspector Aggrey said Amankwah followed up to the bank but he was told that Mohammed had cashed the money and left. He then reported the case to the police who arrested the accused at Kojokrom, his hometown.