A 19-year-old-unemployed has been jailed for three years in hard labour for stealing cocoa beans, valued GHC101.

Thomas Frimpong, admitted having unlawfully entered a cocoa shed and stealing cocoa beans, and was accordingly sentenced.

Presenting the facts of the case, Police Inspector James Essel told the court, presided over by Mr. Emmanuel Brew that the complainant, Madam Faustina Asare, was a Purchasing Clerk P/C of the Ghana Cocoa Marketing (GCM) at Apinaman, while Frimpong lived at Adenkyesu.

He said on March 28, last year Madam Asare went to the company’s District Office to submit her returns and when she went back, he detected that some quantity of cocoa beans had been stolen from the shed.

Inspector Essel said at about 1015 hours that day, Frimpong sent a quantity of cocoa to the shed to sell and after weighing it, Madam Asare identified the beans as those stolen from the shed and, therefore, reported the matter to the Police.