Elmina (C/R), Aug. 13, GNA - Mr Kwame Ohene-Essel, a Circuit Court Judge, on Tuesday warned the public to guard against receiving or buying stolen items.

He said this when he sentenced a 45-year-old farmer from Egyeikrom, near Komenda to a year's imprisonment for stealing a goat and trying to sell it to another farmer. Ekow Amoesi pleaded guilty to stealing.

Ekow Ackon, who pleaded guilty with explanation to receiving the stolen goat, was however, acquitted and discharged for lack of evidence. Detective Inspector Joshua Eduful told the court that last Sunday the assembly member for the Kokoado Electoral Area heard a goat bleating outside and went out to enquire.

Inspector Eduful said Mr Nyarko found Amoesi with a goat and when he questioned him he confessed that he stole it and claimed that Ackon had asked him to steal it and that he would buy it because he needed one to rear.

He further told Mr Nyarko that Ackon had even paid him an advance of 45,000 cedis and had in addition, given him a rope to tie it with. The case was reported to the Police and the two farmers were arrested.

In his explanation, Ackon told the court that Amoesi had told him that his mother had many goats for sale when he informed him that he needed a goat to rear.

The court also sentenced Yao Kugbadzor, a 42-year-old fisherman from Bantuma, near Elmina, to a year's imprisonment for being in possession of a stolen bicycle.

He pleaded guilty to the charge.

The court, issued a bench warrant for the arrest of a second accused person, John Kofi Agbeko, a 42-year-old carpenter, who is alleged to have dishonestly received the stolen bicycle.

The case for the Prosecution is that last Friday a Policeman returning from night patrol duties saw Kugbadzor carrying a bicycle on his shoulders and questioned him.

Kugbadzor claimed that he was taking the bicycle, which he had bought for 180,000 cedis in Cape Coast, to Agbeko who in turn, on his arrest, claimed that Kugbadzor had sold it to him for 330,000 cedis. Kugbadzor failed to identify the person who sold the bicycle to him.