A circuit court at Akim Swedru in the Eastern Region, on Monday sentenced Thomas Frimpong, an unemployed, to three years imprisonment in hard labour, for stealing GH? 101 worth of dried cocoa beans.

Frimpong, 19, pleaded guilty to unlawful entry and stealing and was sentenced by the trial judge, Mr Yaw Atta Sampong,

The prosecution said Madam Faustina Asare, a Marketing Clerk of Ghana Cocoa Marketing who buys cocoa at Apinaman, is the complainant.

He said in March, Madam Asare went to the company’s District Office to submit her returns and detected that half bag of the cocoa beans had been stolen from shed.

The prosecution said in the course of the day, Frimpong sent the bag of cocoa to the society to sell and after weighing the beans, Madam Asare caused his arrest.