Fleet Manager charged for stealing 44 vehicles: Granted GH¢2m bail
Frank Ashirifi Junior, a 31-year-old fleet manager at Huawei Technologies has been handed remand sentence at an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly stealing 44 vehicles worth GH¢5.7 million.
The court presided over by Patricia Amponsah, saw the accused, Frank Ashirifi Junior, pleading not guilty to all 44 counts of stealing when he appeared before the court.
The complainant of the case, McDennis Ackon, who is also the Audit, Risk and Compliance Manager for Leasafric Ghana PLC, a car rental company in Kasoa, petitioned the Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service that the accused, Ashirifi, had sold 44 vehicles that his company had rented out to Huawei Technologies Ghana S.A. Limited.
According to investigations Leasafric Ghana PIC rented out about 44 vehicles made up of 21 Nissan Hardbody pickups, four Toyota Landcruiser Prado, nine Toyota Hilux pickups, two Mitsubishi Pajero, two Mitsubishi L200 pickups, three Hyundai Creta, one Hyundai Elantra, one Toyota Hiace, one Nissan Almera and one Nissan Patrol with their registration numbers valued at GH¢5,774, 519.58 to Huawei Technologies Ghana S.A. Limited between January 2021 and July 2022.
The prosecutor, Police Inspector Isaac Babayi stated that Ashirifi was instructed by his company to return and replace the vehicles to Leasafric Ghana PLC but records of movements of the vehicles prepared by Frank Ahirifi showed that he had returned 37 vehicles to Leasafric Ghana PLC.
According to Inspector Babayi the accused person, fraudulently sold those vehicles to unsuspecting customers without the consent of Leasafric Ghana PLC and Huawei Technologies Ghana S.A. Limited.
The accused was subsequently arrested and admitted to selling the 44 vehicles and on interrogation, the accused, admitted to an amount of GH¢710,000.00 from the sale of some of the vehicles but was invested in a Fixed Deposit at Access and Zenith Banks.
Inspector Babayi, however, noted that Ashirifi had refunded GH¢ 80,000.00 being proceeds from the sale of the vehicles to the police, adding that 25 vehicles had been retrieved, remaining 19 vehicles.
The case has been adjourned to October 17 this year.