Couple gets 50 years for stealing

Page 3: Daily Graphic November 1, 2011.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Financial Division of the Accra High Court yesterday sentenced a couple to a total of 50 years imprisonment after finding them guilty for stealing and abetment of crime.
While Linda Edzidor, a former teller of ECOBANK Ghana Limited, was found guilty on 94 counts of stealing and misappropriating GH¢713,896 belonging to three clients of the bank, her husband, Joshua Edzidor, was found guilty on three counts of abetment of crime and dishonestly receiving.
They both pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The court, presided over by Mr Justice Bright Mensah, sentenced the couple to 25 years’ imprisonment each on all the counts to run concurrently.
A number of vehicles, including four taxis, a Toyota Camry and a Ford Escape, currently in the custody of the bank and various sums of money in the accounts of the convicts, including that of a company, Strong Foundation, are to be confiscated to the bank.
Although counsel for the defence, Mr J. K. Yeboah, pleaded for leniency before sentence was passed, on the grounds that the couple were the parents of two toddlers, the presiding judge noted that they did not show any sign of remorse during the trial and at times wanted to prove that their statements to the police had been made under duress.
Mr Justice Mensah said the prosecution, in addition to a committal agreement signed by Mr Edzidor to the bank during the initial investigations by the bank to refund the money, was able to convince him that the convicts had to face the requisite punishment prescribed under the law for such an offence.
The facts of the case, as presented by Mrs Evelyn Keelson, a Principal State Attorney, were that between May 2010 and October 2010, three clients of the Ring Road branch of the bank — the headquarters of the Church of Pentecost, the La District of the Church of Pentecost and T. F. Financial Services — reported some unauthorised withdrawals in their accounts to the bank.
The withdrawals, she said, were: Church of Pentecost headquarters, GH¢655,526; La District of the Church of Pentecost, GH¢31,120, and T. F. Financial Services, GH¢27,250.
She said initial investigations by the bank showed that the unauthorised withdrawals had been done by Mrs Edzidor, who had then been in the employment of the bank for four years.
She said it was detected that Mrs Edzidor had performed 8,000 transactions within the period under scrutiny, using her bank code, including the three accounts in dispute.
According to Mrs Keelson, instead of using cheques for the withdrawals, since they were company accounts, it was detected that the first names of unknown persons had been used by Mrs Edzidor to effect the withdrawals.
She said Linda went into hiding when she was called by her superiors to explain the withdrawals, until her husband volunteered to bring her for a meeting with the bank’s officials and also promised to refund any money misappropriated by his wife.
Mrs Keelson said Mr Edzidor had admitted during investigations that he had sought financial assistance from his wife to enable him to conduct his business.
She said as a result of that, Mrs Edzidor, who was on a GH¢450 a month salary, started making the unauthorised withdrawals to support her husband.