COURT ORDERS SEIZURE OF HOUSE (PAGE 35, MIRROR, DEC 12)

From Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi

THE Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly Circuit Court has ordered that a house built by an accounts officer of the Ghana Post Company in Kumasi with stolen money from his employers be taken away from him and handed over to the company.
Mr Adjei Manu, an accounts officer stationed in Kumasi, had told the court presided over by Mr Adjei Frimpong that he used the money to build a house in his hometown.
The officer was in the dock for embezzling GH¢87,000 belonging to the company, a charge to which he pleaded not guilty.
He explained that he did not embezzle the money but only used it to build the house. 
However, the prosecution proved its case against the accused and in the end he was pronounced guilty.
Manu was consequently sentenced to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour while the building in question was handed over to the company.
The judge said the criminal code prohibits anyone from benefiting from a crime, and that the company had the legal right to take possession of the building.
 The prosecution told the court that following audit investigations into the operations of the Kumasi office of the company, it was detected that the amount in question was missing.
 Manu was found to have embezzled the money and as a result, a report was made to the police, leading to his arrest. He confessed his crime and said he had used the money to build the house in his hometown.
After investigations, he was arraigned before the court and sentenced.