THE PRINCIPAL finance officer of Ghana Telecom Company Limited was last Friday sentenced to four years imprisonment in hard labour for stealing the company's money by an Accra Circuit court.

Benjamin Odonkor Asare, 45, the officer, was charged on eight counts of stealing almost ?94 million belonging to the company. He pleaded not guilty to all counts.

The court, presided over by Justice Mustapha Logoh, said the accused was guilty beyond all reasonable doubts and sentenced him to four years imprisonment on each count, adding that the sentence will run concurrently.

The court, however, ordered that the VW car and a plot of land bought by the accused at Ablekuma should be sold and the money paid to the company.

Inspector Benedicta Akolgo told the parked court that the complainant in this case was Ghana Telecom's chief security officer, Mr. Edgar Amelor.

She said between the months of January and June, last year, the accused whose responsibilities were to prepare cashbooks, withhold tax schedules and send cash to the bank in the name of the company, used his position to collect various sums of money amounting to ?93,810,094.00 from the treasury and instead of depositing the money at the High Street branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) in Accra, pocketed it.

According to the inspector, Asare forged the stamp of the GCB on the pay slip to paint a picture as though he had paid the money into the company's account.

Inspector Akolgo added that during a routine check by the Accounts department, the anomaly was detected, so the financial director confronted the accused, who confesseds the offence. And subsequently, the accused was handed over to the police.