The Kade District Magistrate’s Court presided over by Mr Abdul Majid Iliasu, has sentenced George Kofi Boateng, a mining labourer, to 12 months imprisonment for unlawfully entering into the room of a woman and stealing her phone.

Boateng pleaded not guilty to two counts of unlawful entry and stealing.

Presenting the facts of the case, Police Chief Inspector D.T. Nartey said the trader, Comfort Ansah, lived at Akwatia whilst Boateng is a resident of Boadua, near Akwatia.

He said on February 17 at about 0100 hours when Ms Ansah was sleeping, she heard a noise and woke up only to find Boateng in her room.

She raised the alarm and Boateng took to his heals but was arrested some 200 metres away and when searched two mobile phones were found on him.

The complainant, Ms Ansah, rushed to the scene and identified one of the phones, an LG, as her own.

The prosecutor said efforts to locate the owner of the second phone proved futile.

Those who arrested Boateng later handed him over to the police but in his caution statement, he denied the offenses saying he picked the LG mobile phone on the ground.

In his defense, Boateng said he was gathering gravels to wash his diamonds when he heard, “thief!” and shortly thereafter, two boys came running past him and a mobile phone dropped from the pocket of one of them.