Notorious criminal faces cases in 2 courts

An alleged notorious criminal arrested by the police in the Eastern Region is now facing three separate cases in two courts for his involvement in several criminal activities.

The accused, a 28-year-old tailor, Paul Lartey, who lives at Kofigya, a suburb of Suhum, shuttles between the Magistrate and Circuit courts to face trial.

He has been charged with possessing stolen property worth thousands of cedis and stealing. His victims are a teacher, a hairdresser and a trader, all residents of New Juaben.

The first case as presented at the Koforidua Circuit Court “A” by the Prosecuting Officer, Chief Inspector Solomon Keelson, was that on November 27, 2017, the accused broke into the room of the complainant, Richard Sodzavi, a 35-year-old teacher, at about 6:30 a.m. and stole GH¢ 500.00, 11 pieces of assorted GTP cloths, four kente cloths and one HP laptop computer.

Other items stolen were an Apple IPad tablet , Itel phone, a Gucci footwear, three Gucci bags, two pairs of black shoes, two pairs of jeans trousers, a pen drive, a Rolex wrist watch, 20 African wears, two shirts and 20 pieces of T-shirts valued GH¢ 946.00.

In the second case, according to the Prosecuting Officer, Chief Inspector Keelson, the complainant is Vera Otoo, a 35-year-old hairdresser who lives at Adweso SSNIT in Koforidua.

He said on December 18, 2017, she returned home at about 6:20 p.m. to detect that a thief had broken into her two bedroom self-contained apartment and made away with two kente cloths, a 32-inch Akai flat screen television set, a Sony sound system with its speakers, 11 half pieces of Holland wax print, assorted drinks and GH¢ 1,200.00 cash.

The accused was arrested on December 26 ,2017 for breaking into the house of another complainant, Favour Tsormana, a 47-year-old trader at Bonya, a suburb of New Juaben Municipality, between 9:50 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., and stealing items including one LG 32-inch flat screen television valued at GH¢ 2,000.00, an unspecified number of half pieces of waxprints, assorted drinks, provisions,various recharge cards and cash of GH¢ 20,000.00.

Unfortunately for the suspect, a neighbour’s CCTV camera captured the Toyota Corolla LE saloon car with registration number number GX 2065-17 used by the suspect to carry out the operation.

The vehicle was spotted at Suhum and the police trailed it to the house of the suspect, but met his girlfriend, Charity Addai, at the door who told the police that the suspect was not at home.

The police forcibly entered the room of the accused person and found him hiding inside the room and arrested him. During a search in his room the police found various items, including the stolen items and the GH¢ 20,000.00. He was remanded by the Koforidua Magistrate Court ‘B’.

Following his arrest, some of the items stolen from the complainants have been retrieved from his room but the accused alleged that they were brought to him by one Samuel Baafi who lives at Odorkor in Accra.

The accused person had earlier been identified by a 12-year-old ?????during a police identification parade.

The accused was granted bail by the Circuit Court judge but was rearrested for another stealing case levelled against him by a fourth complainant.