AN interpreter attached to the Sekondi High Court has been remanded in police custody for allegedly stealing cash exhibits taken as evidence by the court.
The accused who was said to have used the money to restock the wife’s store and finance his brother’s trip abroad is to re-appear before the Takoradi Circuit Court on September 13, 2010 where he is standing trial .
The exhibits included Ghana cedis, US dollars, British pounds sterling and euros.
According to the police, anytime the court took exhibits and handed them to the accused, Albert Quainoo, to be given to the court registrar for safekeeping, he pocketed the cash and gave the material exhibits to the registrar.
The police said the offence was not detected until the Supervising High Court Judge, who was on transfer to Kumasi, had to prepare his handing over notes and transfer all the exhibits to the incoming judge.
According to the police, when the deputy registrar of the court requested for all the exhibits, the accused quickly went into the vault and put together non-cash items and envelopes and handed them over to him.
Unfortunately for him, the deputy registrar insisted that the sealed envelopes were opened to enable them to check the exhibits together one by one before handing them over to him for onward transfer to the incoming judge.
The accused, however, insisted that the registrar took the envelopes without opening them.
After a few minutes of argument, the registrar and the accused agreed to open the envelopes to verify the contents.
The fears of the deputy registrar were confirmed when the cash exhibits made up of GH¢5,077, $105, 240 euros and 440 pound sterling were not found in the envelopes.
The police said the case was reported to the outgoing supervising judge who summoned Quainoo and his colleagues to his office where the accused confessed.
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