By Gifty Amofa
Accra, June 18, GNA – An Accra Circuit Court has granted varied bail sums and conditions to three cashiers accused of stealing GHS 541,643.03 from Fairway Super Market, their employers.
Priscilla Ocran Azadegbe, Blessed Dogbe and Esther Baba have denied the theft.
The Court presided over by Mr Joojo Amoah Hagan admitted Priscilla to a bail of GHS200,000.00 with a surety to be justified, Blessed to GHS150,000.00 with a surety to be justified and Esther to a bail sum of GHS40,000.00, also with a surety to be justified.
Priscilla has been accused of stealing GHS183,778.06, Blessed GHS118,791.55 and Esther GHS33,685.05 from their employers.
They will make their next appearance on July 6, 2023.
Police Inspector Dzigbordi Nego giving the facts said Mr Prince Nii Tackie, the complainant, is the Human Resource Manager of Fairway Supermarket whilst Priscilla, Esther and Blessed are cashiers of the same supermarket. They reside at Teshie, La Adzeman and La Bone, in that order, all in Accra.
He said on May 10, 2023, the complainant accompanied by counsel of the supermarket reported to the Police that as part of the company’s procedure, management took stock from August 2022 to April 2023 and detected a loss of over GHS 1,000,000 which was unusual. They, therefore, viewed the CCTV (Close Circuit Television) cameras at the supermarket to ascertain the cause of those losses.
The CCTV camera captured the accused persons stealing various sums of money on a daily basis and this led to the arrest of the accused persons. They admitted stealing some of the money but denied the total sum mentioned by the complainant and they were granted police enquiry bail whilst investigations continued.
The prosecution said investigations also revealed that the accused persons deleted invoices on the POS machine [Point of Sale] they are working on and stole those amounts of money that corresponded with the invoices deleted to cover up the theft.
Inspector Nego said it was also detected that in January 2023, invoices with a face value of GHS139,575.03 were deleted from their various POS machines, in February 2023, invoices with a face value of GHS 84,576 were deleted from their POS machines and between March and April 2023 also recorded loss of GHS 158,026 and GHS159,466, respectively all to the tune of GHS 541,643.03 which invoices were deleted and those monies could not be accounted for by the accused persons.
He said investigations also revealed that Priscilla during the month of January to April 2023 stole GHS183, 778.06 whilst Blessed and Esther also stole an amount of GHS118,791.55 and GHS33,685.05 respectively. The accused persons deposited some of those amounts in their mobile money wallets and bank accounts, the Court heard.
He said efforts were underway to retrieve the rest of the money.
GNA