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Gregory Osei Donkor, a 30-year-old secretary for the Pentecost district in Assin Fosu in the Midwest, has appeared in circuit court in Cape Coast for allegedly falsifying documents and stealing Church GH, 7 107,746.92.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges of possession of forged documents and theft and the Court, chaired by Dorinda Smith Arthur, admitted him on bail for the sum of GH ¢ 54,000 with two bonds to be justified.
One of the surety must have land property worth 60,000 GHc, while the other must be a government worker earning at least 2,500 GHc.
His next appearance is Thursday, October 29, 2020.
At the prosecution, Inspector Gilbert Ayongo told the court that the plaintiff was Mr. James Ato Hagan, a tutor at Obiri Yeboah High School and an elder of the Church.
He said that in 2017 the defendant was employed by Church executives, who are witnesses in the case, to receive money from offerings and tithes from all branches of the Church in Assin Fosu.
It was to be deposited into the district church account at the Assin Fosu branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB).
He said that in November 2019 and February 2020, witnesses wrote two checks valued at Ghc27,000 and Ghc21,000 respectively to be transferred to the Church Area account.
In March 2020, the plaintiff received a phone call from said Bank to the effect that the checks had bounced due to insufficient funds in the Church Account for the transaction.
The complainant then informed the witnesses and they suspected that the accused had committed the act.
Gregory was then invited and questioned by Church executives and he vehemently denied the claims and then submitted an account statement to support his denial.
The complainant and witnesses, dissatisfied with the account statement issued by the accused, engaged the services of the District Audit team to audit the District Church, including all branches.
It came to light that from 2018 to 2020, the defendant embezzled the sum of 54,448.92.00 Ghc, without depositing the exact amount in the Church’s account.
On Saturday, July 4, the complainant filed a complaint with the Police and the accused was arrested.
In the course of the investigation, the Police received a statement regarding the Church District Account, which revealed that the statement issued by the defendant was false.
According to the Bank statement, the Police detected that the defendant secretly deposited a sum of Ghc 18,000 in the Church Account after the executives questioned him.
The Police found that the accused had forged the signature of the signers of the Account and managed to withdraw GH ¢ 53,298.00.
Subsequently, the defendant deposited 27,000 Ghc in the Church Account.
In total, he misappropriated cash for an amount of Ghc107,746.92 and during the investigations, the Police recovered Ghc55,026.00 from him.
After the investigation, Donkor was charged with the crime.
