MINER STEALS LADY'S HANDBAG (MIRROR, PAGE 27, JUNE 27)

From Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga

For stealing a lady’s hand bag worth GH¢10 containing a mobile phone worth GH¢ 25, lip stick and a cash of GH¢10, Iddrisu Ayindoor, a small scale miner (Galamsey Operator), has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment with hard labour, by a Bolgatanga Circuit Court.
The accused was convicted on his own plea of guilty in a court presided over by Mr William Boampong.
The facts as presented in court by Police Prosecutor, Inspector John Agyuah, said on June 11, 2009 at exactly 9:00a.m., the complainant who is a hair dresser, arrived at her salon at Kumbosoligo, a suburb of Bolgatanga only to realise that she had left the keys to her shop at home.
The prosecutor said the complainant therefore left her handbag containing a Vodafon cell phone worth GH¢ 25 with a chip, a lipstick and GH¢ 10 on a veranda in front of her salon and went home for her keys.
He continued that the accused, who was around and saw the bag, picked it and absconded to an uncompleted building nearby, where he took out all the items from the bag, after which he threw the bag away.
The prosecutor told the court that unknown to the convict, an eyewitness spotted him throw the bag away and confronted him and an argument ensued.
While they argued on the issue, the phone rang from the accused pocket and he pulled it out and tried to switch it off.
However, the witness snatched the phone from the accused and received the incoming call, after which he narrated the incident to the woman who had then returned to her shop, leading to the arrest of the accused.