OSEI AND OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC

Francois J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. Until his conviction by the Circuit Court, Kumasi, in June 1969 on charges of conspiracy to steal and forgery of official document contrary to sections 23, 124 and 159 of the Criminal Code, 1960 (Act 29), respectively, the appellant, Samuel Johnson, occupied a position of trust with the Ghana Commercial Bank as an assistant accountant in their Kumasi branch office. His duties (as far as are relevant to this appeal) involved the certifying of savings accounts transferred from subsidiary branches of the bank to the Kumasi office. He had to scrutinise, vet and pass documents validating such mail transfers. It was after he had set his imprimatur on the transaction that the new transferred account could be lawfully operated. It is obvious that the bank placed the utmost reliance on the integrity of the appellant to discharge his duties faithfully. Indeed the cogs propelling the wheels of bank transfers would grind to a halt if such trust were misplaced. It was in respect of the transfer of an account from the Asamankese branch of the bank to its [p.386] Kumasi office that the appellant had a brush with the law leading to his conviction.

At the trial court the appellant was charged together with four other officials of the bank with various offences in connection with the loss of ¢5,862.54. One of the accused was acquitted at the conclusion of the trial, but appeals to the High Court, Kumasi, by Johnson and his three other colleagues, failed, with each receiving enhanced sentences.

In this court only Johnson has prosecuted his appeal. All the sentences passed on the other accused persons appear to have been served. It must be observed, however, that the fact that this appeal is prosecuted by the appellant alone, has the equivocal virtue of being either an honest protestation of his innocence or a sly attempt to salvage financial gain and social respectability by the throw of a dice. It can be placed no higher and consequently merits no further consideration.

The case presented against the appellant and his colleagues postulates a well contrived design to effect the fictitious transfer of a non-existent account from a subsidiary branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank (Asamankese) to its Kumasi office. It entailed the participation of various highly placed officials of the bank whose part was to authenticate the transfer and legitimise entries in the usual bank books, and thereafter facilitate the operation of a