The bodyguard of Rachel Florence Appoh, a deputy minister of Children, Gender and Social Protection and Member of Parliament for Gomoa Central, was yesterday handed down a 20-year sentence by an Accra Circuit Court after he admitted forging her documents and stealing her money.
Constable Nicholas Owusu Asante, a police bodyguard of the deputy minister, was jailed by a court, presided over by Francis Obiri, who described him as ?a disgrace to his family and himself?.
The convict was nabbed when he was about to cash GH?100 using the minister?s cheque.
The policeman was charged with two counts of stealing, forgery of documents and an attempt to commit crime for which he pleaded guilty.
He was given five years for stealing, 10 years for forgery of documents and an additional five years for attempt to commit crime. All sentences would run concurrently.
DSP Aidan Dery, who narrated events leading to the incarceration of the accused person, said the complainant, Ms Appoh, whose bodyguard is the police constable, detected a loss of her cheque book and some unusual withdrawals of various sums of money from her bank account.
According to him, the money withdrawn was from her personal account at the Agricultural Development Bank at Obuasi so she alerted her bankers who mounted a surveillance to hunt the culprit.
He said on Tuesday, November 19, 2013 the suspect presented a cheque number 151911 allegedly signed by the deputy minister to the Adabraka Branch of the bank to withdraw GH?100.
The DSP said Constable Owusu Asante was arrested by staff of the bank who later handed him to the Adabraka Police and after a formal complaint he was later handed over to the Commercial Crime Unit of the CID of the Ghana Police Service.
He was said to have stolen some cheque leaflets from Ms Appoh?s chequebook and managed to withdraw an amount of GH?6,500.
The prosecutor said the accused person admitted the offence in his caution statement and was consequently arraigned after police concluded investigations.
By Fidelia Achama
