An unemployed young man was yesterday sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment with hard labour by an Accra Circuit Court for robbing his step-sister of her possessions.

The convict, Ebenezer Quaye, aka Atta Quaye on July 2, this year robbed his step-sister one Isabella Yeboah at about 8pm.

The convict, who appeared before the Accra Circuit Court presided over by Aboagye Tandoh, admitted the offence and was convicted on his own plea.

In sentencing Atta Quaye, the judge said the court took into consideration the convicts’ plea for mercy and the fact that he had been in custody for two weeks.

The court condemned the conduct of Atta Quaye, who attacked Isabella at knifepoint, subjected her to severe beatings and ransacked her room.

The court said that even the mask that the convict wore to carry out his nefarious activities could not protect him.

A second accused, Abdul Tahidu Latif aka Dobiw, a scrap dealer, denied charges of abetment of crime preferred against him although the judge suggested that he was to be charged with dishonestly receiving stolen items and not abetment.

He was however remanded into custody to reappear on September 2, 2015.

Prosecuting, Detective Chief Inspector Isaac Agbemehia, said the convict, who moved out of the family house, lives in Kasoa.

He said on the said day, Isabella returned from a funeral at Cape Coast and was attacked at the gate by a man in mask.

The convict escorted her into her apartment and demanded that she surrender all her belongings or be killed.

The prosecutor narrated that in the process of ransacking her belongings, his mask came off and Isabella identified him as her brother, adding that the convict took away the complainant’s Kia Sportage car with registration GY 490-13.

The case was reported to the Anyaa Police, and on August 9 the convict was arrested at Mallam-Gbawe where he said that he handed over the car to Dobiw, who sold it and gave him GH¢7,000.