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May 23, 1972
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
The appellant was convicted by the District Magistrate Grade I, Mr. J. B. K. Yemidi, sitting at Sunyani in August 1970, on four charges of forgery of bank pay-in-slips and four corresponding charges of stealing the respective amounts involved. Upon conviction, the appellant was sentenced as follows:
"On count one: ¢50 or three months' imprisonment with hard labour.
On count two: ¢50 or three months' imprisonment with hard labour.
[p.265]
On count three: ¢40 or three months' imprisonment with hard labour.
On count four: ¢40 or three months' imprisonment with hard labour.
On count five: ¢50 or three months' imprisonment with hard labour.
On count six: ¢80 or six months' imprisonment with hard labour.
On count seven: ¢50 or three months' imprisonment with hard labour.
On count eight: ¢50 or three months' imprisonment with hard labour.
Sentences concurrent. Exhibits to the complainant."
The story of the prosecution was that the appellant, at the material times, was a revenue collector of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation at Sunyani, being responsible for the collection of fees or charges in connection with radio re-diffusion boxes. It was his duty to pay all revenue thus collected on behalf of the corporation and to pay to the government chest through the Sunyani branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank. After the appellant's accounts had been checked by the second prosecution witness (Joseph Yaw Dwobeng) whilst he was stationed at Accra as an assistant accountant of the corporation, and he had "discovered that the bank statements did not tally with the duplicate copies of the remittance accounts," he reported the matter to the head of the department. Following this report the first prosecution witness (Isaac Ernest Arhin), the corporation's technical superintendent stationed at Sunyani, received instructions from the head office that he should report the appellant to the police; and he did so when, according to him, "I checked the accused's bank pay-in-slips and bank statements and I discovered that there were forgeries and alterations in the figures.
In proof that the respective amounts actually paid into the bank on the bank pay-in-slips did not tally with, as being less than, what appeared on the corresponding duplicates of the pay-in-slips kept by the appellant, two cashiers of the bank gave evidence. First, the third prosecution witness (Daniel Kwateng Focus Quartey), a bank clerk attached to the Sunyani branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank, sta
AI Generated Summary
On appeal, Anterkyi J overturned convictions of a Ghana Broadcasting Corporation revenue collector at Sunyani for four counts each of forgery and stealing tied to altered bank pay-in slips. The prosecution relied on duplicate pay-in slips (exhibits C1–4), the recollections of Ghana Commercial Bank cashiers Daniel Kwateng Focus Quartey and Samuel Nee Adukwei-Quaye, and a handwriting comparison by CID Sergeant Theophilus Kodzo Yanu Chinson, while Detective Inspector Enock Tackie tendered bank statements (exhibits D1–2). The collector explained that his assistant, John Oduro, handled deposits, and he later refunded amounts at the department’s request. The High Court held the prosecution had not proven the amounts collected or the amounts paid in by admissible evidence, rejected the bank statements and untraced originals under banker’s books and secondary-evidence rules, found intent to defraud not established, and allowed the appeal, ordering refunds and acquittal.