Five jailed 50 years for snatching handbag

Aflao (V/R), Sept. 21, GNA - Five young men, who snatched a handbag containing about 1.2 million CFA francs and 600,000 cedis from a trader at the Aflao lorry park and shared the money among themselves were sentenced to a total of 50 years by a Circuit Court at Aflao.

Victor Hussey, 21, Richard Amuzu also called Favour, 18, Kofi Geli, 19, Ashitey Agbagli, 18, had all pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and stealing. The four, all unemployed, were each sentenced to 10 years on both counts.

The sentences are to run concurrently. The fifth accused, Kwame Ankrah, also known as Eklu and described as leader of the gang, was also handed down a 10-year sentence on similar charges in a separate trial later. He had eluded the Police for about two months.

The trial judge, Mr Yaw Apau, said none of the accused was able to convince the court of his innocence in the crime. The court was told that at dawn on May 26 the five snatched a handbag containing the money and an electronic calculator from Madam Elisabeth Lekey at the Aflao lorry station and took to their heels.

The prosecution said one of the accused fired a warning shot to scare of the complainant, who was chasing them while shouting for help. According to the prosecution, when the victim came upon a witness in the case, she initially mistook him for one of the thieves and held him by the shirt asked him to give her back the money.

The witness, however, assured her that he could help her trace and arrest the culprits as he could identify some of them as they ran passed him. Mr Apau said although all the five had been on remand during the trial another group of armed robbers, apparently sympathetic to the cause of their colleagues, raided a house where the complainant spent the night after the court had taken an adjournment.

During the raid, Madam Lekey and her host, 72 year-old Madam Soenyeametor Adogo, were allegedly shot and robbed of unspecified amount of money, gold ornaments and other valuables worth millions of cedis.

He said in view of the events that followed the trial, the court believed that the five were members of a syndicate of robbers and ordered that they should be immediately sent to the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons to begin their sentences.

The prosecution said 230,000 CFA francs and 157,000 cedis as well as the calculator were later retrieved from the accused during Police investigations.