A 63-year-old trader, Adamu Alhassan, has been sentenced to five years in prison by the Kwadaso Circuit Court for stealing a tricycle popularly called ‘Aboboyaa’ and loaves of bread in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
Alhassan pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing and was convicted on his own plea before the court presided over by Mr Jephthah Appau.
Police Chief Inspector David Opoku Kwabi, presenting the case, said the complainant, Oduro Zakaria, a bread baker from Kumasi Ashtown, had loaded 114 loaves of bread worth GH¢1,680 onto his unregistered tricycle, valued at GH¢35,000, for delivery to customers at the Adehyeman lorry station in February 2024.
Along the way, the tricycle developed a fault. Alhassan, who posed as a station master, offered to assist and helped push the vehicle to the Kejetia MTN roundabout. The complainant left the tricycle in his care while he went in search of a mechanic.
However, when he returned an hour later with the mechanic, both the tricycle and Alhassan had vanished.
Efforts to trace him led nowhere, and it was later discovered that the convict was not a station master as he had claimed.
On August 28, 2024, a witness spotted Alhassan at the lorry station and alerted the complainant, leading to his arrest by the Ashanti Regional Anti-Armed Robbery Unit (AARU).
During interrogation, Alhassan confessed to stealing the tricycle and bread. He revealed that he had sold the tricycle to a scrap dealer at Bremang for GH¢700 and distributed the bread to passers-by.
After investigations, he was charged with stealing and handed a five-year custodial sentence.
