The Accra Circuit Court has remanded Michael Sumnaya Adedina, an Accountant with Medeena Con­sult Limited, in police custody for illegally collecting tax of GH¢2,495,778.00 on behalf of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The accused was also charged with forgery of official document and fraudulent breach of trust.

Adedina pleaded not guilty to all the charges and is expected to reappear in court on January 17, 2024.

Initially, lawyers for the accused prayed for bail, but it was de­clined.

The court presided over by Mrs Afua Owusua Appiah struck out two of the counts because they did not support the charges.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Evans Kesse told the court that the complainant in the case was the Country Manager for BMG Infrastructure Company Limited, located at Tarkwa in the Western Region.

The prosecution said the for­eign-owned company that regis­tered with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) was into mining waste processing.

DSP Kesse said the accused intro­duced himself to the complainant as a professional accountant, who could prepare all accounts and represent BMG interest profes­sionally.

The court heard that the company outsourced services to Adedinain all matters relating to accounting, including statutory payments and preparation of var­ious tax types with the GRA and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust, for employees.

DSP Kesse said since his appointment in 2021, the accused collected monies from the com­pany at the end of every month ostensibly to pay as the various tax handles.

The court heard that Adedina after each payment gave official receipts to the complainant from the GRA as proof of payment.

DSP Kesse said when the GRA conducted a tax audit into the activities of BMG, it (GRA) found out a tax liability of GH¢2,495,778.00 against the company, which raised suspicion.

He said that when the compa­ny carried out investigations into the matter, it detected that ac­cused had failed to pay all monies he collected from BMG to GRA.

DSP Kesse said the case was reported to the investigation wing of GRA and the accused was arrested, and during interrogation and in caution to the police, he (the accused) admitted the offence.

The court heard that Adedina downloaded the GRA payment receipts from PDF to Word, edited them and inserted the tax figures and presented the forged receipts to the complainant as though genuine taxes had been paid.

DSP Kesse said the accused used part of the money to buy concessions for mining purpos­es, but the transaction went bad and also bought two vehicles costing GH¢650,000.00 and GH¢550,000.00 respectively.

DSP Kesse said accused used part of the proceeds to build a four-bedroom self-contained house at TarkwaAboso