A former Bishop at Lighthouse Chapel International, Larry Odonkor, has been put before court for allegedly stealing the Church’s monies meant for the payments of taxes and his own Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions.
The accused according to court documents In March 2020, wrote a cheque of GHc8,527 out which GHc5,000 was for his salary for February while GHc1,667 and GHc1,850 were for the payment of his SSNIT contributions and taxes respectively but failed to pay the statutory monies to the proper authorities.
Mr. Odonkor is said to have repeated the act in April 2020, and failed to make the necessary statutory payments and instead deposited the entire GHc8,527 into his personal account and made use of same.
The accused has been charged with two counts of stealing and for dishonestly appropriating the Church’s GHc7,054 meant for the payment of his own SSNIT contributions and taxes. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The criminal charges against the former Bishop represents another twist in the saga between the Church and six of its former pastors which led to the ‘Darkness In a Lighthouse’ publication which has led to another legal tussle.
Bail Application
Kofi Bentil, counsel for the accused prayed the court to grant the accused person a self reconnaissance bail pending the trial.
He said the accused is a family man and a Bishop of a church and is therefore, not a flight risk.
Mr. Bentil indicated that the accused had sued the church and expecting to rake in large sums of monies from the suit so he will not run away from the jurisdiction because of this criminal case.
The application for bail was not opposed by the prosecution and the court presided over by Her Honour Ellen Offei-Ayeh granted the accused bail in the sum of GHc10,000 with 2 sureties who are gainfully employed and live in the Greater Accra Region.
The court ordered the prosecution to file their witness statements while it adjourned the matter to March 9, 2022.
Brief Facts
The brief facts of the case presented by the prosecution led by Chief Inspector Isaac Anquadah, indicated that the accused, Larry Odonkor was a Bishop of Lighthouse Chapel International and between January and April 2020, he was the head pastor of the Akim- Oda branch of the church.
It says part of his duties as head pastor was to ensure the payment of SSNIT contributions and taxes for himself and employees working under him.
In March 2020, the accused wrote a cheque of GHC 8,527 which had a breakdown of GHc5,000 for his salary for February while GHc1,667 and GHc1,850 were for the payment of his SSNIT contributions and taxes respectively for the months of January and February 2020.
The facts say the accused, however, deposited all the monies into his personal account and made use of same and failed to pay the SSNIT contributions and taxes to the appropriate authorities.
Again, in April 2020 the accused repeated his previous conduct and wrote a cheque of GHC 8,527 out of which GHc5,000 was for his salary for the month of March 2020 while GHc1,667 and GHc1,850 were for the payment of his SSNIT contributions and taxes respectively for the months of March and April 2020.
“He however deposited all the monies into his personal account and made use of same and failed to pay the SSNIT contributions and taxes to the appropriate authorities”, the facts say.
Court documents indicate that the accused person in September 2020 turned round and wrote to SSNIT and complained to them that the church had neglected to pay his SSNIT contributions.
The facts state that the church’s attention was then drawn to the failure on the part of the accused person to make the payments for the said SSNIT contributions and taxes and was made to pay same with penalties amounting to GHC 10,963.91.
The case was subsequently lodged at the CID Headquarters of the Ghana Police Service and the accused was arrested.
The facts say Mr. Odonkor admitted having signed and received the said cheques and paying them into his personal account.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak