Lawyer Remanded Into Police Custody For Stealing

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Created on Monday, 26 August 2013 00:00

Lawyer Remanded Into Police Custody For Stealing

26 August 2013

A Sekondi High Court has remanded a lawyer, Kweku Sam Amoah for stealing GHȼ154,800 belonging to his deceased client and unnecessarily delaying the case before the court.

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The case which was brought before the Sekondi High Court 1, presided over by Justice Charles N. Agbevor, had been called more than 30 times because the accused and his counsel had failed to appear in court.

The lawyer is said to have gained the power of attorney from his client, Isaac Kofi Nketsiah (deceased), to complete the sale of his 10.3 acre plot of land.

According to the prosecution led by the Principal State Attorney, Ms Patience Klinogo, in 2010, the deceased contracted lawyer Amoah and gave him power of attorney to sell the parcel of land which he had bought more than 15 years ago.

The land was sold to a maritime company at GHȼ154,000 but the client died before the money was fully paid into two accounts which had been opened by the lawyer without the knowledge of the deceased and his family.

It said after the death of the deceased, the lawyer failed to disclose the total amount to the Nketsia family and went ahead to withdraw an amount of GHc78, 321.68 from one of the said accounts.

Police investigations revealed that after withdrawing the money, lawyer Amoah went to the family that sold the land to the deceased and the Nketsia family and told them that he (the deceased) did not pay for the land before he died.

After several insistences, both families produced receipts to the effect.

The lawyer was said to have misappropriated the deceased cleint's money and upon a tip off, the family of the deceased reported the matter to the police, leading to his arrest.

However, after multiple adjournments, the court issued three bench warrants for the arrest of Lawyer Amoah, the last being July 22, 2013.

Fed up with the several excuses by the accused and his counsel, Justice Agbevor asked that Lawyer Amoah be remanded in custody until the case was finally determined.

The court made it clear that the judge was on transfer and had to finish all cases pending before him before moving to his new station and cautioned the accused that any delay tactics would not be tolerated anymore.

Source: Daily Graphic