An Accra Circuit Court has sentenced an Indian national, Shubham Sharma, to five years’ imprisonment for possessing forged foreign and local currencies.

The court heard that Sharma had in his possession counterfeit GH¢200 notes amounting to GH¢1,976,000 and fake US$100 notes totalling US$191,900.

Prosecution told the court that Sharma dishonestly appropriated money belonging to his employer and replaced it with forged currency.

Chief Inspector Wisdom Alorwu, who led the prosecution, said the complainant, a businessman and Chief Executive Officer of a company that manufactures air refreshers, reported that Sharma, a former manager of the company, had replaced genuine cash kept in the company’s safe with counterfeit notes.

The court, presided over by Mr Joseph Yennuban Kunsong, sentenced Sharma to four years’ imprisonment for possessing forged local currency and five years for possessing forged foreign currency. The sentences are to run concurrently.

The court also took into account that Sharma had already spent more than nine months in custody during the course of investigations and trial.

In addition, the court ordered officials of the Ghana Police Service, the Bank of Ghana, and the Registrar of the court to supervise the destruction of the seized counterfeit notes.

The court further directed that Sharma be deported from Ghana after serving his prison sentence.

Prosecution said investigations revealed that Sharma, who was responsible for receiving and keeping the company’s cash, broke into his employer’s safe while the complainant was on a trip abroad.

He allegedly replaced an unspecified amount of genuine US dollars with counterfeit notes.

Further checks conducted by the company later revealed that Sharma had also replaced large sums of Ghana cedis with fake GH¢200 notes.

The Bank of Ghana subsequently confirmed that the seized cedi and dollar notes were counterfeit.

During investigations, Sharma admitted that he had kept the forged notes in the office.

Writer’s Name: Andre Mustapha Nii Okai Inusah
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