In an Accra Circuit Court, two teachers who forged official receipts from the Judicial Service have been sentenced to six years in prison each.
The mastermind behind the forgery, Lordfred Heward Mills, was sentenced in absentia, while Lawrence Ansu Asante, the second accused person, was escorted to jail by the police.
The verdict was reached after Mrs. Afia Owusua Appiah, the presiding judge, found them guilty of charges including conspiracy to commit the offense of uttering forged documents and actually uttering forged documents at the conclusion of the trial.
Inspector Wisdom Alorwu led the prosecution, and it was revealed that the complainant, Eric Ansah Agyei, is a pastor residing in Aburi.
Mills, residing in Bubuashie, and Asante, a resident of James Town, served as sureties in the pending case of Republic versus Jeffery Wilson Ofori before Circuit Court 4, formerly presided over by the late Mr. Emmanuel Essandoh.
According to the court records, in June 2021, the complainant entrusted GH₵3,500 to the now-convicted individuals for payment on behalf of Jeffery Wilson Ofori, an accused person in an ongoing case. Subsequently, the accused, now convicts, devised a scheme to forge an official Judicial Service receipt, failing to remit the money to the court.
The prosecution revealed that the convicts sought the assistance of Boakye Boateng to obtain forged Judicial Service official receipts. They later presented one of these forged receipts, numbered 19/0263336 and dated June 11, 2021, with a face value of GH₵3,500, to the prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rita Asaah.
Upon submitting the receipt to the court on November 23, 2021, it was rejected, leading to the judge ordering the arrest of the convicts. They were subsequently detained at the Community 18 Police Station for further investigation.
Mills, during questioning, implicated Boakye Boateng, who remains at large, as the source of the forged receipts, allegedly charging them GH₵500 for the service. The remaining GH₵3,000 was reportedly divided between the convicted individuals.
In their caution statements, both convicts admitted to the offense in the presence of an independent witness.