How unemployed man stole laptops from BoG and three other gov’t agencies

An unemployed man, who is also an ex-convict, is in court for making away with laptops belonging to the Bank of Ghana and three other government agencies.

John Nyarko, popularly known as John Boye, is alleged to have visited the various ministries and made away with four laptops.

He then gave the stolen laptops to the other accused person, Gerald Otoo, who is a computer technician.

The prosecution, led by Sergeant Daniel Ofori Appiah, told the Accra Circuit court that the laptops were stolen from Ghana Health Service, Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Ministry of Communications and Bank of Ghana.

The two have since been charged with conspiracy and stealing at the court presided over by Ellen Offei Aryeh.

The ex-convict has pleaded guilty to the charge and will be convicted on his own plea.

But Gerald Otoo, who was charged with dishonestly receiving the stolen laptops, has denied the offence.

Gerald has since been granted GH¢80,000.00 with three sureties, one to be justified with landed property.

The sentence has however been deferred to September 18, 2020.

The facts of the case

Police Sergeant Appiah told the court, the complainants; Franklina Fia, Kwasi Owusu Ansah Amadi, Gabriel Sackey and Alex Kassim are employees of Ministry of Health, Ministry of Communications, SSNIT and Bank of Ghana.

He said Nyarko is an ex-convict and unemployed while Otoo is a computer technician who formatted the computers and sold them.

In June and July this year, the Ministries Police recorded laptop thefts from the various Ministries and Departments.

The police then visited the above Ministries and Departments where Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) footages of the incident were obtained to assist in investigations.

According to the prosecution, when the footages were released, Nyarko was captured stealing the laptop computers from the various offices within the ministries and departments.

Investigations revealed that Nyarko occasionally visited various offices located within the Ministries enclave under the guise of seeing the Human Resource Managers for employment.

“He took advantage of that to steal the laptop computers and sold them to Otoo at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle,” Sergeant Appiah said.

He said Nyarko, with the same modus operandi, stole one HP I3 laptop valued GH¢2,500.00 belonging to the Ministry of Health and HP Intel I Core 7 laptop computer valued at GH¢3,500.00 belonging to the Ministry of Communications.

Nyarko is reported to have also stolen “HP notebook laptop computer valued at GH¢5,395.35 belonging to SSNIT and one HP Specter laptop computer valued at $1,300 belonging to one Kafui Yao Giritsi of Bank of Ghana Head Office, which he sold to Otoo.”

On August 28, this year, at about 3:30 pm, Nyarko using the same modus operandi gained access to the premises of Bank of Ghana Head Office, but he was identified, apprehended and handed over to Police by the security personnel.

During investigations, Nyarko admitted stealing the computers and confessed that he sold them to Otoo and led police to the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, where Otoo was also arrested.

The prosecution said one of the four laptops was retrieved and Otoo admitted selling the remaining three to the unidentified customers.

And after investigations, they were charged and put before court.