Accountant acquitted and discharged

Accra (Greater Accra), 26 Jan '99- Kwabena Asamoah, an accountant of a private company, who was charged with fraud and forgery, was yesterday acquitted and discharged by an Accra Circuit Tribunal for want of prosecution. The tribunal, chaired by Mr Charles K. Nyewolema, upheld the accused's defence that he fulfilled his promise by getting Mr Gabriel Osei Bonsu, a trader, travelling documents which enabled him to leave the country on the appointed departure date. Asamoah in his defence said he used the money he collected from Mr Bonsu to pay for the documents and therefore he could not be charged with fraud. The case for the prosecution was that in October last year, the accused collected eight million cedis and 400 dollars from Mr Bonsu to procure a visa, air ticket and a passport for him (Bonsu). The prosecution said although Asamoah provided the passport which bore the complainant's picture, the name in it read Boakye Kwabena Asamoah instead of Gabriel Osei Bonsu. It said Mr Osei Bonsu, who did not know that the passport was fake travelled with it to Belgium and was arrested and repatriated.