'Susu' manager jailed for stealing

A 32-year-old “Susu” Manager who misappropriated GHS 46,444 belonging to 61 customers has been sentenced to four months imprisonment by an Accra Circuit Court.

Amos Baffoe, charged with stealing, pleaded guilty.

Baffoe claimed he was cash strapped and used the money to pay fees.

The Court presided over by Mrs. Evelyn Asamoah, convicted Baffoe on his own plea and sentenced him accordingly.

The Court said it considered that fact that Baffoe was a first time offender and refunded GHS11,000.00 of the amount.

Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Emmanuel Haligah, said the complainant is the Chief Executive Officer of C. J SUSU Services.

Mr Haligah said Baffoe was the Kotobabi branch manager of C.J Services.

The Prosecution said the complainant and accused were residents of Kotobabi and Pig farm respectively, all in Accra.

Mr Haligah said Baffoe had been working with the Company since the year 2018 as the Manager and he was the only person who had access into the customers’ account in terms of withdrawals and deposits.

The Prosecution said in February this year, some customers went to the susu office to withdraw monies but when their accounts were checked, it was realized that there were no monies in them but they insisted they had money in their accounts.

Mr Haligah said the complainant conducted investigations and detected that, the accused had altered the telephone numbers of the customers and withdrew their monies and as a result, they were not getting the withdrawal alerts on their phones.

He said a report was made to the Police at Kotobabi in Accra and Baffoe was arrested.

Mr Haligah said the accused in his cautioned statement admitted the offence and said he was facing financial crises.

He said while Baffoe was in custody, the management conducted its own investigations and detected that more monies had been withdrawn from other customers’ accounts by the accused who was granted Police enquiry bail to allow an audit of the Organisation’s accounts as well.

Mr Haligah said on March 21, this year, the complainant brought an audit report conducted on Baffoe’s accounts, which indicated that, he misappropriated cash in the sum of GHS 46,444.00 belonging to 61 customers of the Company.

“A copy of the audit report was served on the accused and was also advised to avail himself at the institution to reconcile the complainant’s audit report. The accused on receipt of the copy of the report went into hiding but was later re-arrested,” the prosecution said.