A 38 year old private investigator, Israel Afram Benson has pleaded not guilty for allegedly having in his possession police accoutrements and defrauding by false pretences. Israel was arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Evelyn Asamoah yesterday.
Her Honour, Mrs Asamoah, admitted the accused to a bail sum of GH¢150,000 with two sureties to be justified with either movable or unmoved property, worth the bail sum.
The court, after taking the accused’s not guilty plea, adjourned the case to December 21, 2022 for continuation.
The brief facts
According to the prosecutor, Chief Inspector Benjamin Benneh, the complainant in the matter is Leticia Diame, who is unemployed and lives at Asebi, near Ayi Kuma.
He said while the complainant’s husband, Gershon Diame is domiciled in Israel, in the Middle East, the accused – Israel Afram Benson – resides at Dome Pillar ‘2’ in Accra.
According to him, somewhere in September 2022, the complainant’s husband informed her that his younger brother, whom he has entrusted documents covering his house and a C300 Mercedes Benz car for safekeeping wanted to sell those properties.
The complainant was then asked to inform one Chief Inspector Akakpo, a witness in the case, to help her retrieve the said documents.
Chief Inspector Akakpo also introduced Leticia to the accused, who had earlier visited him at the Ghechele Police Station, under Afienya District, in plain cloth, under the identify of Detective Chief Inspector at the CID Headquarters, to assist her in retrieving the documents.
Based on this, the accused managed to convince the complainant and collected cash in the sum of GH¢5,000.00 to enable him to retrieve the documents from her brother-in-law.
But as soon as the accused received the money, he started to play hide and seek with the complainant. He refused to respond to several calls placed to him by Chief Inspector Akakpo and the complainant.
The conduct of accused made the complainant to lodge a petition against him at the Police Professional Standard Bureau (PPSB) Headquarters.
However, while the case was still under investigation, the accused called Chief Inspector Akakpo and informed him that he was the Staff Officer to the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander and due to his duty schedule, they cannot meet.
Chief Inspector Akakpo then became suspicious about the conduct of accused and doubted his integrity.
Following this suspicion, he urged the complainant to make a case at the Regional CID/Accra against him and upon intelligence, the accused was traced to his hide out at Dome Pillar ‘2’ and arrested on December 2.
A search conducted in the accused person’s rented apartment revealed two set of Police operational wear, and two police operation black shirts.
During interrogation, the accused admitted that he is not a police officer, but managed to get the uniforms from a certain tailor called Frank Tetteh at Kumasi Central Police Station.
He also admitted having collected GH¢3,000.00 from the complainant and not GH¢5,000.00 for the said assignment.
The court was told that investigation was still on-going to trace the said Frank Tetteh to assist with investigation.
