Cop on guard at bank jailed 30 years

A police constable, Daniel Kofi Amponsah, has been jailed 30 years for armed robbery by the Sekondi High Court, presided over by Mr Justice Robbin Batu.

Constable Amponsah, who was attached to the Tarkwa Divisional Police Command, used an official police SMG rifle with 24 rounds of live ammunition to rob a customer of a bank where he had been detailed as a security officer.

He managed to trace the house of the customer and at dawn on January 26, 2007, he led an accomplice, who is now at large, to attack the victim and succeeded in getting GH¢200.

On his arrest, the convict said he had rather been on duty at the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal Chief Executive's residence, but the duty roster confirmed that his duty station had been at the bank.

The customer of the bank had, during the day, gone to the bank to cash a huge sum of money to pay his workers.

According to the facts of the case as presented by a Principal State Attorney; Mr George Kpodo, the convict saw the man carrying the money and managed to trace and locate his house.

Mr Kpodo said the policeman managed to get another person to assist him to execute the task in "the night.

He said when Constable Amponsah and his accomplice reached the house, the convict demanded to know the whereabouts of the complainant from his daughter at gunpoint.

Out of fear, the daughter of the complainant led the intruders to her father and, after ransacking the room, the convict and his accomplice, who was armed with a locally manufactured gun, managed to get the GH¢200.

They later abandoned their weapons and took to the bush.

Unknown to them, the daughter of the victim had identified Constable Amponsah as a police officer and during an identification parade she recognised him as the one who had been the leader of the robbers.