A watchman of the Christ the King Cathedral at Sunyani has been sentenced to five years imprisonment for stealing ?500,000 being tithes paid by church members.

Alfred Beyuo, 39, was last Monday caught in the act by the Rev Father Augustine Opoku Tabiri, picking money from the tithe box. A search on him by the Catholic Priest revealed a master key, and some coins, including the missing amount in ?2,000 denominations.

He was consequently handed over to the police who after investigations charged him with stealing. Sentencing him, the circuit court Judge, Mr Justice Erasmus Gyinea, described his conduct as very reprehensive and referred to him as a “bad nut in society.”

He ordered that the money be given back to the church and the master key destroyed. The facts of the case as presented by Assistant Superintendent Alex Yartey-Tawiah, were that there were series of stealing cases including car tapes and bags of church members at the church. And as a result of rampant theft of tithes of church members, the authorities of the church decided to change all the padlocks of the tithe boxes.

Unknown to them, the accused had managed to acquire a master key and last Monday, luck however, eluded him when he was spotted by the priest taking money from one of the boxes.

He pleaded with the priest to tamper justice with mercy but the priest would not budge and handed him over to the police. He was convicted on his own plea of guilty.