GH - AMPAH AND ANOTHER v. THE REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the Circuit Court, Accra. The appellants were employed by the Chamber of Mines, hereinafter referred to simply as the Chamber, and they were based in Accra. The first appellant was the executive-director of the Chamber, while the second appellant was the accountant. The appellants and one Colonel Bean, a director and consultant of the Chamber, were the signatories to the cheques of the Chamber. The second appellant was the first signatory, the first appellant was the second and the said Colonel Bean was the third signatory.

According to the standing orders which the Chamber gave to the banks of the Chamber, any cheque signed by the second appellant as the accountant and counter-signed either by the first appellant, as the executive-director, or by Colonel Bean was to be accepted as genuine. In other words, any cheque of the Chamber with the signatures of the appellants on it was to be considered valid. The authority to sign cheques for and on [p.406] behalf of the Chamber was exercised by the two appellants, to the exclusion of Colonel Bean, during the period covered by the offences and that was between 1 July 1971 and April 1973. By virtue of being the authorised signatories, the appellants were able, during the said period, to convert various sums of money, totalling about ¢142,321.74 and belonging to the Chamber, to their own use.

The method employed by the appellants looked rather simple but ingenious. They used two agents in the operation, namely, a Mr. E. Q. Hammond and a firm known as Kweks Agencies. Cheques coming from outside and drawn in favour of the Chamber were endorsed by the appellants and made payable into the accounts of either Kweks Agencies or E.Q. Hammond. I should observe that Kweks Agencies was a private firm registered in Ghana by the first appellant in the name of a Mr. Alfred Martin. So that, officially and on record, the proprietor of the firm was the said Alfred Martin; but in reality the first appellant was its owner. E. Q. Hammond was a pensioner who was personally employed by the first appellant as a foreman to supervise the construction of a private dwelling-house of the first appellant.

After the cheques which were intended for the Chamber had been diverted into the respective banking accounts of the said Kweks Agencies and E. Q. Hammond, the first appellant then got hold of cheque books supposed to belong to Kweks Agencies and E. Q. Hammond and issued cheques

JUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.

AMPAH AND ANOTHER v. THE REPUBLIC

Areas of Law

Judgement