Laptop thief who returned to steal charger jailed 21 years

A 28-year old kleptomaniac has been jailed after pleading guilty to robbery and stealing.

The convict, Nicholas Tetteh was arrested after he returned to a student hostel in Ho in the Volta region to steal the charger of a laptop he had stolen moments earlier.

The Ghanaian Times newspaper reported proceedings at the Ho Circuit Court where the judge, Felix Datsomor, pronounced 21 years’ imprisonment for the 28-year old father of one.

Explaining the facts of the case, Chief Inspector N.K. Kumekeh told the court that the robbery happened on September 7, 2020 at about 2:30am while the student was asleep in his hostel.

Tetteh, armed with a flick knife and a screwdriver, attacked the student and made away with his Dell laptop, a cell phone and ¢1,000.

He fled.

But he would soon return after realising he had failed to steal the charger to the laptop. The Chief Inspector said Nicholas Tetteh hid the laptop in a nearby bush and returned for a second attack.

Bbut this time some students aware of what had happened moments earlier were on the alert and jumped at the chance to chase him.

The 28-year old father in an adrenaline-filled moment jumped the hostel’s wall and fell awkwardly, fracturing his right knee.

The students arrested Tetteh and handed him over to the police.

In court, the accused who claimed to be a driver and a satellite dish installer admitted to the offence of robbery.

The convict, Nicholas Tetteh, blamed his irresistible tendencies to steal on ‘unknown forces’ after he was arrested by the police last Friday.

It emerged he had stolen another laptop a day earlier in similar modus operandi at another student’s hostel in Ho.

He sneaked in at night and made away with a laptop, a cell phone and an accessory to the phone.

Tetteh also led the police to a hideout in Ho where he kept stolen items in a third robbery case.

The accused person was found to have committed a similar offence a day earlier when he scaled the wall of another student’s hostel in Ho and sneaked into the room of a student and took away laptop computer, cellular phone and an accessory to the phone.

The court sentenced Tetteh to 18 years’ imprisonment for robbery and three years for stealing, with the jail terms to run consecutively.