The Donkorkrom Magistrate Court Presided over by His Worship Augustine Akus-Am has sentenced Benjamin Amaoko, an ex-convict, to six months in prison for posing as a staff of the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited (ECG) to defraud unsuspecting customers of the company.
He pleaded guilty to defrauding by false pretence and was sentenced to six months in prison in hard labour while his suspected accomplice, Michael Aledzi, a motorbike operator, who pleaded not guilty was remanded in police custody to reappear on March 15, 2022.
The court on Tuesday March 1, 2022 heard that Amoako, riding at the back of the motorbike of Aledzi went to a complainant in the case’s house at Brubeng, near Donkorkrom in the Affram Palins North District, posing as an ECG disconnector on February 14, 2022.
The complainant, who was owing the ECG, then issued an amount of GHs200 to Amoako, to offset the amount and that prevented him from disconnecting his power supply. Amoako was therefore expected to settle bill and produce a receipt later.
The convict later resurfaced in Brubeng with the electricity bill without proper payment receipt and upon interrogation by the complainant, it resulted in exchange of words.
The complainant became suspicious and called his assembly member, who consequently informed the police to arrest Amoako. His alleged accomplice, Aledzi, managed to flee the scene.
Amoako was then arraigned before court and remanded in police custody while a bench warrant was issued for the arrest of Aledzi. Upon the arrest of Aledzi on Monday, the two were brought before court for prosecution by Chief Superintendent Samuel Entsua-Annan.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Region Public Relations Officer of the ECG, Mr. Emmanuel Halm, has advised the general public to desist from making payments to disconnectors and meter readers, who visit their house for special exercises, saying, such people are not mandated to collect cash on behalf of the company.
“If we deploy disconnectors to customers premises, it is their duty is to disconnect the defaulting customers, and not to collect monies from them. The customer would then have to pay a reconnection fee to the company, before supply is restored to their premises. In any case, if ECG is undertaking a special exercise, we cause announcements and our disconnectors would visit the communities with bonded cashiers, who are mandated to receive monies on our behalf. They will issue receipts to customers as evidence of payments, anytime they receive your money”, he said.
“Customers should therefore take note that if you make any payment to ECG, you have to demand an instant official receipt. Without that, be sure that the money you are giving to that person cannot be accounted for. I therefore take this opportunity to advise our Cherished customers not to pay monies just to anyone but to only ECG accredited cashiers at our offices or those assigned with teams that usually visit their communities for special revenue mobilisation exercises”, he added.
Information gathered from the district indicates that Amoako is on record to have posed as a disconnector of the company to dupe some other unsuspecting customers of the company. This prompted the District ECG official to mount a surveillance of his activities until his arrest
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