An Accra Circuit Court, Presided over by Mr M.E Essandoh on Thursday handed an eight- year jail term to four farmers for conspiracy to commit crime and stealing.

The convicts are to serve four years each on the charge of conspiracy and four years each on the charge of stealing. The charges are to run conservatively.

Alhaji Abudu, Wahabu Tia, Issah Yidana and Gafaru Iddrisu pleaded not guilty to both charges but were found guilty by the court after going through full trial.

The court ordered the police to refund all retrieved items to the complainant and charged the convicts to compensate the complainant with GH¢20,000.00 each.

According to the facts of the case, the complainant is a businessman who resides at Madina and sells rice in his store at the Madina market, while the convicts and one Waliu, now at large are all farmers who hail from Wungu, a suburb of Walewale in the Northern Region.

In October 2012, the complainant employed the convicts as casual store assistants. The complainant keeps his daily sales in his safe in the store before sending same to the bank.

It said the complainant kept daily sales amounting to GH?200,000.00 in the safe. On November 9, 2012 the complainant decided to send the money to the bank only to detect that, the safe had been broken and all the monies stolen.

By then the four convicts and Waliu who had reported for work had vanished and could not be traced. Their mobile phones were called but they failed to answer the calls.

The facts indicated that the complainant suspected them to be responsible for the theft and reported the case to the Madina Police. During investigations, information from Walewale indicated that the convicts were seen spending money extravagantly in a suspicious manner.

It said the police proceeded to Walewale on November 30, 2012 and the next day, the four were arrested in their homes but Walui was not found at home.

In their cautioned statements, they admitted the offence and said they conspired together and planted Wahabu in the store on November 8, after closing and the complainant locked the store with him (Wahabu) inside.

It stated that, he forced the safe opened and packed the money into an empty key soap carton. The following day when they came to work the complainant opened the store as usual and the accused persons rushed in to join their partner, Wahabu and they managed to escape with the money to Walewale where they shared same.

After sharing the money, the Alhaji Abudu with his booty bought one donkey and its carts. Ten bundles of roofing sheets and one motor bike, worth GH? 1,910.00 were retrieved from him.

The facts stated that Wahabu bought one tractor worth GH? 22,500.00 from his booty, while Yidana bought one motor bike, one motor king, six bundles of roofing sheets, a TV set and deck, and amount of GH? 2,560.00 was retrieved from him.

One motor bike belonging to Waliu now on the run was also retrieved. In all a total amount of GH? 4,470.00 was retrieved from them.

Further investigations revealed that Latif and Wombila who were not part of the team got wind of the deal and appeared at where they the money was being shared and took unspecified sums of the money.

It said on December 17, Latif was arrested at his hideout by the Walewale police and brought down to Accra.

During interrogation, he admitted the offence but stated that he received GH? 200.00, given to him by Wahabu which he added to his own money and bought a new motor bike worth GH? 1,650.00.

Two others, Waliu and Wombila are still on the run.