Three Hotel Staff Charged with Stealing Foreign Currency

Accra (Greater Accra) 23 June, '98

A receptionist and two cleaners of a hotel in Accra appeard before an Accra circuit tribunal charged with conspiracy and stealing foreign currency from lodgers brief case. Isaaac Botchwey, the receptionist, Kwesi Ahwireng and Francis Dogbe, both cleaners pleaded not guilty and each of them was granted five million cedis to reappear on July 20.

Police chief inspector Benedicta Akolgo told the tribunal, chaired by Mrs Elizabeth Yeboah, that on 28 May this year, Mr Michael Baba Yakubu, a resident in Kumasi came to Accra to meet his German wife and they checked in at a hotel in Accra.

The prosecution said late in the evening, they went for a walk in the city after handing over the duplicate keys of their room to Botchey and took the original away. When they returned from the walk late in the night, they did not check through their suitcases until the next day when they realised that their brief case had been forced open and 160,000 cedis, 5,100 Deutsche marks and a video recorded had been stolen.

A police report on the case revealed that Botchwey, the receptionist, keeps all the duplicate keys while the two other accused persons clean the rooms of the hotel. gri