AWUTU ELLIES KAATI & ORS v. THE REPUBLIC

DENNIS ADJEI, J.A

The 1st Appellant herein was convicted by the High Court, Sekondi on nine (9) counts of offences which three of them were on forgery of official document, contrary to Section 158 of Act 29/60, five of them on falsification of Account contrary to Section 140(a) of Act 29/60 and one count of stealing. He was sentenced to five (5) years IHL on all the counts and in addition he was to pay an amount of GH¢40,000.00 to Internal Revenue Service.

The 2nd Appellant was also convicted on Abetment of Crime to wit Stealing, contrary to Sections 20(1) and 124(1) of Act 29/60. He was however acquitted on the charge of Abetment of crime to wit falsification of accounts, contrary to Section 20(1) and 140(a) of Act 29/60. He was sentenced to five (5) years I.H.L. on the offence of stealing. He was further ordered to pay an amount of GH¢20,000.00 to the Internal Revenue Service. The other four (4) accused persons were also convicted for various offences but they did not appeal against the judgment.

The facts of the case were that the 1st Appellant herein was the Chief Accountant of the Department of Urban Roads in Sekondi. He was subsequently transferred to the Finance office of Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly (S.A.E.M.A.). The 4th accused person was an accounting staff of the Department of Urban Roads and he worked under the 1st accused persons as a subordinate officer. The other accused persons were staff of the Internal Revenue Service stationed at Takoradi. Between 20th February 2006 and 14th March 2006, an audit check was done at the Department of Urban Roads, Sekondi to cover January 2002 to December, 2005. The audit revealed that an amount of approximately GH¢126,874.60 being withholding tax collected by the Urban Roads from companies on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service had been diverted into other accounts or cashed at the Bank of Ghana Counter by A1 and A4. The letters I. R. S. were legibly written and well spaced to facilitate easy falsification. They were falsified to read either Ivon Rans Saka, Kwaka Enterprise, Jasem, Taris Enterprise, Metro Roads Engineer or Francis R. Asiedu. However, the payment vouchers (PVS) supporting the cheques were issued in the name of Internal Revenue Service. The Audit investigation at the Internal Revenue Service disclosed that their original receipts issued to the Department of Urban Roads for withholding taxes paid higher sums of money to correspond with the amounts on the cheques i