Crime & Punishment of Thursday, 26 February 2015

Source: GNA

Court defers sentencing of driver to March 9

An Accra Circuit Court has deferred the sentencing of 27 year old Ibrahim Alhari, a Driver to March 9, after he pleaded guilty to various charges of driving offences.

He was charged for careless and inconsiderate driving, dangerous driving, driving a motor vehicle with a forged driving license, driving under the influence of alcohol, misuse of trade plate and failure to display or fix license plate number on vehicle.

Ibrahim pleaded guilty to all the charges except the one on driving a motor vehicle with a forged driving license.

Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Oppong told the court that on January 13, at about 19:30 hours, the accused person was in charge of a Toyota Camry Car with trade plate number DV 1789 A, driving from Community 17 towards community 18 direction.

He said the accused person dangerously, without due care and attention to other users of the road, lost control of his car, skidded, veered and rammed into a Toyota Land cruiser Station Wagon car being driven by Mr Joseph Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, Greater Accra Regional Minister, who was driving in the opposite direction at a spot near community 17.

He said the accused person’s car finally landed in a ditch, whilst the Regional Ministers car was badly damaged.

The accused person got injured but the Regional Minister escape unhurt.

The prosecution said the accused person, who looked drunk, was rescued from his car and with the assistance of the police, he was sent to the Kpeshie Divisional MTTU, where he was tested with an alcoholmeter, which recorded 0.113 per cent instead of the prescribed alcohol limit of 0.08 per cent.

He told the court that the accused was sent to the Lekma hospital for treatment and an endorsed medical form was produced and filed in the police docket.

A DVLA Technical engineer examined the two accident vehicles, which revealed that both vehicles were of no defect prior to the accident.

He told the court that during police investigation, it was also discovered by the DVLA that the driver’s license the accused person was using was a forged one.

The prosecution said the damage caused to the complainant’s vehicle was valued at GH¢39,145.38.