Ghanaian Times circulation clerk convicted for stealing
A Circulation Clerk of national daily, Ghanaian Times, has been convicted by the Ho Circuit Court for stealing and falsifying the corporation’s accounts.
Moses Larbi Owiredu will be sentenced on Friday, September 7, after the court presided over by Mrs Priscilla Dikro Ofori found him guilty of the charges said to have led to his embezzlement of GHȻ132,822.34 belonging to his employers.
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Owiredu had pleaded ‘guilty with explanation’, saying the corporation was not funding the office and that he had used part of the receipts to run official business affairs, however the court disagreed with him and concluded that his admission amounted to guilt.
Prosecution led by Chief Superintendent A.Y. Ayamga, also told the court Moses had used part of the money to fund his university education.
The court heard that an audit of Moses’ work as a circulation clerk of Ghanaian Times in the Volta Region from February 2015 to June 2018 uncovered the rot.
As the clerk, he was responsible for receipts of revenue from adverts, subscription fees and newspaper vendors’ payments and was required to pay all the money received into the corporation's bank account.
The audit was occasioned by a suspicion of wrongdoing, and when the missing sum and other misconducts were discovered, the regional manager of the corporation reported him to the police.
Police investigations later revealed that Moses issued receipts from missing receipt books for cash but did not pay the receipts into the corporation’s bank account.
He also altered amounts in original and duplicate receipts to collect cash without payment to the corporation’s bank account, as well as issued receipts with same serial numbers to two clients for cash and yet failed to pay same into the corporation’s accounts.
Other acts included issuing torn out and discarded receipts for cash and issuing temporary receipts for cash without paying same to the corporation.