An Accra Circuit Court has granted a 37-year-old trader a GH₵150,000.00 bail with three sureties, one to be justified over an alleged GH₵ 262,247.81 theft.
The Court, presided over by Mrs Afia Owusua Appiah ordered that Sheila Ekuba Bassey, to report once a week to the police pending trial.
Sheila has denied the offence and will make her next appearance on March 9, 2022.
Police Chief Inspector Gulliver Kwabena Tenkorang said Ahmed Inusah, the complainant, is a Civil Servant (name withheld) and living at Cantonment while Sheila is a petty trader and resident at Kasoa.
It said the complainant is a friend to Inusah who lived in Australia, adding that Ahmed had a building plot at New East Legon Hills and in early 2020, he visited Ghana and met the accused person through a friend.
The Prosecution said he later became close with the accused person and at a point he wanted someone to help him put up a house on the plot, hence, the accused person got wind of the complainant’s intention and she quickly offered to help.
It said that Ahmed showed the accused person the plot and he later flew back to Australia and that from October 27, 2020, to May 31, 2021, Ahmed sent various sums of money through World Remit and the rest through Veronica Quarshie, Frank Owusu Boateng, Wahab Idrisu Anthoney Darko, Sulaiman Musah Lampo and Duomo Sarpong, all amounting to GH₵262,247.81 to the accused person to build a storey building for him and GH₵21,730.54 to rent a house for the two orphans he adopted all totaling GH₵283,978.35.
The Prosecution said months after the accused person received these monies, Inusah asked the accused person to send him pictures of the house, but the accused person informed him that she had put up the house and was only left with its fencing.
It said Sheila then convinced Inusah that she wanted to surprise him with a complete house so he should hold on. Some weeks later, Inusah requested pictures of the house again and when Sheila tried to play tricks on him, he became suspicious and asked a friend to verify the stage of the house for him.
The Prosecution said it was after the said friend had visited the building site that he discovered that the supposed completed building was just at a footing stage.
It said Inusah was under a total lock down in Australia because of the COVID-19 pandemic so, on discovering of the theft perpetrated by Sheila, he issued a power of attorney to the complainant and on July 1, 2021, the complainant together with others arrested her and handed her over to the Kotobabi Police station and lodged a complaint.
The Prosecution said the accused person was re-arrested and during investigation, the accused person admitted having received the monies from Inusah in her investigation cautioned statement stated that she used GH₵45,000.00 for the foundation.
It said investigations revealed that Sheila did not use the money for the intended purpose.
The Prosecution said Police also discovered that the building was only at foundation stage and the amount spent on it could not be more than GH₵20,000.00.
It said investigation also revealed that Sheila stole GH₵217,247.81 out of the money sent to her for the building and she also stole GH₵12,730.00 from the money sent to her for the rent, all totaling GH₵ 229,978.35.
The Prosecution said Sheila admitted in her charge statement that she used GH₵ 40,000.00 out of the money she stole to import plastic bottles from China to sell and spent GH₵10,000.00 on her mother’s medical treatment and used the rest for other businesses.
