An Accra Circuit Court has sentenced Gabriel Bortey, an unemployed to 10 years in prison in hard labour for robbery.

Gabriel was convicted on his own plea, admitting that it was true, he robbed the complainant but it was due to an intense hardship he was facing.

The convict said “My Lord I have a wife and a child I am taking care of and for the past six months I lost my job as a taxi driver”.

The court presided over by Mr Aboagye Tandoh in his ruling said the court decided to give the convict a minimum sentence because no weapon was used in the process.

Prosecuting Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ernest Acheampong told the court that the complainant in the case is a student.

He said on September 26, at about 18:30 hours, the complainant was on board a commercial vehicle from Nungua and on reaching a section at Teshie Mobile, she had a phone call and while she was receiving the call, the convict came from behind the vehicle, twisted the right hand of the complainant and forcibly snatched the mobile phone and bolted.

The prosecution said in the course, the complainant sustained injuries on the right fingers and later in the evening the same day, the convict was arrested with the phone by a watch dog committee members of Teshie and handed over to the police.