Estate developer charged with cheque forgery

James Ofori, an Estate Developer who allegedly forged two cheques belonging Union Oil Ghana Limited and lodged the amount into his personal account at the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB), has appeared before an Accra Circuit Court.

The accused pleaded not guilty to two counts of forgery of document, altering forged document and attempt to commit crime; and was remanded into lawful custody to re-appear on August 13.

Police Superintendent Kofi Blagodzi said the complainant Sosthenes Konutsey is the manager of ADB Limited, Kaneshie branch, while the accused is an estate developer who lives at Baatsona on the Spintex road.

He said on July 30, the accused presented two cheques of Union Oil Ghana Limited both dated July 26, with face values of GH?56,710 and GH? 67,840 drawn on the company’s account at the ADB Kaneshie branch to be lodged into Ofori Excellent Ventures account at the same bank.

The prosecutor said considering the amounts involved and suspecting the signature on the cheques, the complainant sought to have confirmation from the signatories to the Union Oil account.

Superintendent Blagodzi said surprisingly as the complainant dialled the mobile phone number of Paul Jacaboba Amoah, the Finance Manager of Union Oil, who is a signatory to the account; somebody believed to be an accomplice of the accused responded to confirm the issue of the cheque and was persistent in instructing the complainant to effect payment as a matter of urgency.

He said all this while the accused was also constantly calling and questioning the manager about the delay in lodging the amount on the cheques in his account, however, the complainant disregarded the instructions and rather scanned the two cheques to Union Oil for documentary confirmation.

Superintendent Blagodzi said the feedback from the company however disclosed that the two cheques were forged because the company still had its original cheques with serial numbers intact and not those presented by the accused.

He said the complainant therefore caused the arrest of the accused and handed him over to the Police.

The prosecutor said during Police interrogations the accused admitted having presented the cheques at the bank and stated that they were issued to him by one Amoah for the payment of his uncompleted building he sold to him.

He said the Police were still investigating the matter to track down accomplices of the accused.**