A circuit court at Anyinam in the Eastern region has sentenced two workers of an Oil Marketing Company, Ready Oil, to a total of 15 years imprisonment for stealing an amount of GH¢102,000.
The convicts Emmanuel Ohene Amankwah, 27, and 25-year-old Douglas Twumasi, will serve eight and seven-year jail terms, respectively.
This was after they had pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit a crime – to wit, stealing.
The prosecutor Chief Inspector Joseph Damfei, briefing the court said the first convict is a manager at the Kwabeng branch of Ready Oil while the second is a fuel pump attendant.
The complainant in the case is Samuel Kwaku Owusu-Manu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ready Oil Limited.
According to the prosecutor, the complainant on May 20, 2022, at about 10:20 pm, spotted someone siphoning fuel into a tipper truck at his branch station at Kwabeng when he returned from Accra.
He, thus, met the first convict but the driver of the tipper truck bolted upon seeing him.
The prosecutor added that when the complainant confronted Ohene Amankwah, he admitted that all the workers were aware of the thievery practice going on at the fuel station.
Chief Inspector Damfei explained further that on May 21, the complainant went back to the station to check on the previous day’s sales which supposed to be ¢48,000 but the convicts only accounted for only ¢17,617.
Mr Owusu-Manu confronted the second convict who claimed to have sold the fuel to one Awudu and accounted to the first convict, the manager.
The police prosecutor added that the complainant also detected petrol and diesel shortage in the underground tank valuing ¢19,109.50.
An audit inquiry revealed that the convicts could also not account for fuel sold on credit to one Tommy, Richard, and Gandhi at ¢31,000.00, ¢20,000, and ¢2,800, respectively.
Meanwhile, Tommy and Richard denied ever buying fuel on credit from the station, however, Gandhi confirmed buying on credit at ¢1,400 and not ¢2,800 as believed.
In his ruling, the Anyinam Circuit court judge, Franklin Titus Glover directed that an unregistered Toyota Camry the manager had bought should be sold to offset part of the cost.
He against the background sentenced them into prison custody having pleaded guilty to their offences.
