A Sekondi District Magistrate's Court on Monday sentenced Mark Coffie, a 23-year old unemployed, to 18 months' imprisonment with hard labour for stealing building materials belonging to the Sekondi Methodist Church.
The accused, who lived at Sekondi, pleaded guilty to stealing.
Prosecuting, Police Sergeant Godwin Bawa said the Sekondi Methodist Church was constructing a new building near the Church, and the contractor
used some of the roofing sheets for the project to construct a temporary structure on the site to store the building materials.
He said about 0600 hours on September 3 this year, a Good Samaritan saw the accused standing at the junction of the Church with 85 pieces of iron
rods rings; 25 iron rods; eight louvre frames; two metal pipes and one bar.
Sergeant Bawa said the accused was waiting for a taxi to convey the items and the God Samaritan became suspicious and confronted the accused who did not utter a word.
He said later, the accused told the Good Samaritan the items belonged to him, but not satisfied the he called one of the workers from the construction site and he identified the items as belonging to the Church.
The accused person was taken to the construction site where it was detected that part of the temporary structure had been cut off, Sergeant Bawa said.
He said the accused then confessed that he entered the structure and stole the items. He was handed over to the Police.