Timber logs thief appears before court

Tarkwa, Jan. 8, GNA - Mr Allan Atta Buckman, a timber truck driver, was on Thursday granted 50 million cedis' bail with one surety by a Grade One Magistrate's court at Tarkwa for stealing seven timber logs. He was also charged with forgery of documents, wrong markings on timber logs and conveying of timber logs without appropriate documents covering them.

Buckman pleaded guilty with explanation but the court deferred the sentence until January 21, to assist the Forestry Commission trace the source of the fake document covering the logs and where the logs were loaded.

The court confiscated the logs to the state.

Prosecuting, Chief Inspect Kwame Fordwuor of the Tarkwa Police said Mr. Yakubu Mohammed, Tarkwa District Manager of the Forestry Service Division and his monitoring team were on patrol when they came across a timber truck with registration number GT 5960 E loaded with seven logs and parked at Bogoso Junction on December 17, last year.

The logs were inspected and the driver was asked to produce log measurement and conveyance certificate, which indicated that it was prepared at Nkawie District in the Ashanti Region.

On inspection Mr Mohammed and his team found that the documents covering the logs were forged and the markings on the faces of the logs were not correct.