REPUBLIC v. NANA YAW KYEREMEH & OTHERS
2018
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- ADUAMA OSEI, JA (PRESIDING)
- DZAMEFE, JA
- M. WELBOURNE, JA
Areas of Law
- Criminal Law
- Evidence Law
- Constitutional Law
2018
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The appellant and two others were charged with multiple offences related to a break-in and theft at Chambees Co. Ltd's warehouse. The trial court convicted them based on confession statements, which the accused later claimed were not made voluntarily. The appellate court found that the trial judge erred by not holding a mini-trial to determine the voluntariness of the confession statements. Consequently, the conviction and sentence of the appellant were quashed and set aside.
DZAMEFE, JA
The appellant and two others were charged with the following offences: Conspiracy, Unlawful entry, Stealing and Causing unlawful damage.
FACTS
The complainant in the case is the General Manager of Chambees Co. Ltd. The 1st accused is a Galamsay Operator and resides at Sunyani while both 2nd and 3rd accused persons are car dealers living at Kumasi. My lord, on 27th October, 2014, the three accused persons agreed and planned to break into the warehouse of Chambees Co. Ltd, Sunyani and steal the Company’s money. In furtherance of their diabolic plan, 2nd accused and 3rd accused travelled from Kumasi in a black Ford Escape 4x4 vehicle with registration number AS 5165-14 and joined 1st accused in Sunyani at about 7:00pm on 29th October, 2014. On the arrival of 2ndaccused and 3rd accused from Kumasi they joined 1st accused and all of them went and stood at a food vendor’s shed opposite Chambees Co. Ltd monitoring the activities of the Company. After the company had closed and all the employees had left leaving behind the two(2) watchman, 2nd accused drove his Ford Escape vehicle and parked just in front of warehouse. He feigned that the vehicle had developed a fault and opened the bonnet to try and fix the fault. The watchman of Chambees Co. Ltd and the one at MTN Ghana who sympathized with 2nd accused quickly moved in to assist him fix the vehicle’s fault. No soon thereafter, 2nd accused and the watchmen struck an acquaintance and started chatting while they tried to fix the vehicle. Later, 2nd accused informed the watchmen that he had called a mechanics to come and fix the fault for him and needed to go and buy some food since it was late and he was hungry.
He requested the three watchmen to watch over his vehicle for him. He quickly went and met 1st accused and 2ndaccused at Victoria Park, Sunyani where 1st accused gave a drugged beverage (tea), bread and fried eggs together with one undragged beverage to 2nd accused. After that 1st accused and 2ndaccusedleft and took their positions at the food vendor’s shed directly opposite the company’s warehouse to do their monitoring. 2ndaccused on the other hand returned to the frontage of the company where the vehicle was parked and gave the drugged beverage, bread and fried eggs to the watchmen while he drunk the undrugged beverage, bread and fried egg in their presence. The watchmen who did not suspect any foul play took the drugged food and ate. No sooner than he had given the food to the watchmen,