The convict (L) and his booty
The Tamale High Court, presided over by Justice Richard Kogyapwah, has sentenced a former National Service Personnel, Mark Danyagiri, 26, who worked with the Medical Stores of Ghana Health Service in the Northern Region, to seven years imprisonment.
He was charged with two counts of stealing, two counts of forgery and one count of money laundering.
The convict was found guilty on all five counts and sentenced to seven years imprisonment with hard labour.
He was also fined 300 penalty units on each of the two counts of forgery and in default four years imprisonment.
The court fined him 2,000 penalty units on the charge of money laundering or in default four years imprisonment with hard labor, and the judge ordered that an amount of GH¢39,975 retrieved from him be returned to the Regional Medical Stores.
The judge again ordered that a 2015 model of Toyota Corolla which the convict bought with part of the money should be returned to the Regional Medical Stores.
Main Fact
The complainant was an accounts officer of the Ghana Health Service stationed at the Regional Medical Stores, Tamale, and was attached to the accounts office.
The Regional Medical Stores supplies drugs and other medical consumables to all hospitals and health facilities in the five Northern regions and beyond, and receives payments from customers in cash or by cheque.
Cheques received by the accounts office staff are usually kept in a cabinet before they are taken to the bank and on December 9, 2019, Salaga Hospital issued a cheque with the face value of GH¢60,000 to the Regional Medical Stores.
The accused, who knew about the practice of keeping cheques in the cabinet, took the cheque, inserted the letters ‘DV’ on the cheque and subsequently opened an account with Stanbic Bank, Sunyani branch, in the name ‘D.V. Drugs Procurement Account’ into which he paid the cheque and withdrew the money for his personal use after the cheque had cleared on July 17, 2020.
The Salaga Hospital issued another cheque and the accused again inserted ‘DV’ to the account name and paid the cheque into his personal account.
In September, 2020, during an audit, the two cheques did not reflect in the bank statement of the Regional Medical Stores and subsequent investigations showed it was the accused who was diverting the money into his personal account in Sunyani.
When his premises was searched, they found a small bag containing GH¢39,975, which he admitted was part of the proceeds of the cheques.
He also admitted using GH¢78,000 of the proceeds to buy a 2015 Toyota Corolla and mobile phones.
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale