Informant jailed for deceiving CEPS Commissioner

An Accra Circuit Tribunal on Monday sentenced Kwadwo Boateng, a 30-year-old farmer of Jamasi in the Ashanti Region, to 12 months' imprisonment for volunteering false information to the Commissioner of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS).

Boateng pleaded guilty to deceiving a public officer. Police Inspector Alice Yeboah told the tribunal chaired by Mr Kwadwo Owusu that on 8 May, Boateng went to the office of the complainant and booked an appointment that he had information to offer.

She said when Boateng met the CEPS Commissioner and told him that there were five articulated trucks loaded with smuggled goods that were hidden at Nkwanta on the Ashanti-Mampong - Ejura road.

The Prosecutor said that the convict demanded and collected unspecified sums of money from the Commissioner, with the view to facilitating the detection and arrest of the said smugglers. Inspector Yeboah said when Boateng returned from the Ashanti Region the Commissioner detailed two officials from the CEPS to accompany Boateng to the said hideout.

However, when they reached the place, Boateng was unable to point out the exact trucks to them for the officers to effect arrest. She said that the convict managed to move the officers from town to town for three days without any arrest. The CEPS officers became offended that they decided to return to Accra with Boateng. The prosecutor said when they reached Accra and they narrated their ordeal to the Commissioner he handed the convict over to the Police.