Four persons appeared before the Accra Circuit court yesterday for allegedly stealing power belonging to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Eugene Togoh, a student, Cecil Ashong, unemployed, Emmanuel Bediako, a trader, and Ebenezer Kateye, a teacher, were charged with conspiracy to commit crime, two counts of stealing and dishonestly receiving.

They pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted a total of GH¢40,000 with two sureties each.

Appearing before Mr Obiri Yeboah, presiding judge, Inspector George Nana Akomea, prosecutor, told the court that the complaint, Owusu Ansah, is a project officer at ECG.

He said the company observed that the accused were stealing power with master prepaid card.

Inspector Nana Akomea said on July 31, 2020 at about 5:05pm, Togoh went to the Washing Bay of one Kwabena Dodoo, a witness in the case, and said he knew a worker at ECG who could help load the prepaid meter of the witness with a Master Prepaid Smard Card to reduce the cost of electricity consumption.

He said Togoh later took Ashong and Bediako to the Washing Bay to load GH¢500.00 on the meter and took GH¢300.00.

The policeman said accused swipes the card on the meter of a customer and took half the amount loaded on the meter.

On October 31, 2020, Insp Nana Akomea said that an ECG Monitoring Task Force visited the witness’ washing bay and detected that one of the stolen Master Cards had been used on his prepaid meter.

He said that “after assessing the activities of the card, it was observed that 24,000kw/h of power had been stolen causing revenue loss of GH¢35,000 to ECG.”

The court heard that ECG disconnected the power to the witness’ facility and the matter was referred to the police for investigation.

Insp Nana Akomea said Togoh, Ashong and Bediako were arrested together with Ashong, stating that Bediako introduced himself as a worker at ECG, who has master card that could be used to reduce electricity consumption.

He said Ashong also claimed he introduced Bediako to the witness, loaded his (witness’) meter, and took GH¢300.00 and shared the money among themselves.

The prosecutor said Bediako was also arrested and the stolen ECG Master Card with number 1836648 was retrieved from him.

Upon his arrest, Bediato mentioned Kateye as an accomplice.

The case stands adjourned.