Cocoa Purchasing Clerks (P/Cs) have been warned to refrain from cheating farmers through the manipulation of their weighing scales.

Nana Obutu Frimpong, the Chairman of Adikrofo (sub-chiefs) in the Asamankese Traditional Area, gave the warning when interacting with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Asamankese, in the West Akim Municipality of the Eastern Region.

Nana Obutu warned that any clerk caught cheating cocoa farmers by adjusting their scales would face the full rigours of the law.

Nana Obutu, also the chief of Essaso was reacting to complaints received from some chief farmers in the area, that it had been the practice of some of the clerks to manipulate their weighing scales to cheat farmers.

"It is a criminal offence to tamper with weighing scales with the intent to cheat farmers", he stated.

He said some prominent cocoa farmers weighed their cocoa beans in their homes before sending the commodity to the various societies (sheds), and are able to detect the disparities between theirs and that of the P/C's scales.