Serial Taxi thief jailed 25 years
The Tema Court ‘A’ has sentenced a serial taxicab thief, Eric Gyimah, to 25 years imprisonment in hard labour for robbing Mr. Daniel Azure of his Toyota Vitz taxicab.
Gyimah, who had just been sentenced to 15 years in jail for a similar offense, entered a not-guilty plea to the robbery allegation but the court found him guilty after a full trial.
The court presided over by Ms. Agnes Opoku Banie, ordered Gyimah to return the GHC15,000 that he had taken from the plaintiff.
According to the prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) George Doe, the complainant, a cab driver, lives in Kasoa Amanfrom in the Central area, while the convict is a businessman who resides in Adidome in the Volta region.
The prosecution said on May 18, 2023, at about 1340 hours, the complainant was in charge of a light grey and yellow Toyota Vitz taxi cab, driving within Accra, when the convict and two other men, now at large, hired his services to convey them to a building site at the Central University area in Dawhenya to enable them to take pictures of the said building under construction for their brother overseas.
He said Gyimah then sat in the front passenger seat, while the two other men sat at the back. On reaching the Aflao Highway, a few metres after the Central University, they directed the complainant to branch onto a rough road leading to the supposed site.
The facts had it that on reaching a portion of the rough road, Gyimah asked the complainant to stop, which he did, and then the convict and the two men alighted from the taxi, telling the complainant to wait for them while they went and took pictures of the said building and returned.
He added that they returned and sat again in their various seats in the taxi cab and asked the complainant to drive back towards the main road. On their way back, the two men in the back seat hooked the neck of the complainant with a rope and pulled his neck against the seat, while the convict pulled a knife on him.
The prosecution further stated that the complainant, who held on to the knife, sustained some knife cuts on his right palm as Gyimah pulled it and inflicted multiple wounds on his leg.
According to the prosecution, the convict then turned off the car engine, which stopped, and he forcibly took the ignition sensor, which was then hooked to the complainant’s belt hole.
The convict, together with his accomplices, then came out of the car, held the complainant, pulled him out, and dumped him into a pool of water collected in a hole on the road.
The convict then drove the taxi away with his accomplice sitting in it and the complainant’s Samsung mobile phone valued at GhcD 1,600.00, his A.M.A. license, and his driver’s license also in it.
The prosecution said the complainant then staggered to his feet and proceeded to the Dawhenya police station, where he made a complaint.
He said during investigations, the said the taxi cab was spotted in a mechanic shop at Sogakope with a new number plate embossed on it, adding that the mechanics mentioned Agbodzahu Wobube, a nurse, as the one who brought the taxicab for repairs.
Agbodzalu Wobubo was then arrested, and upon investigation, it was mentioned that the convict was the one who sold the taxicab to him for Ghc30,000.
The complaint then named Gyimah as one of his attackers, and Wobubo led the police to arrest Gyimah.