The Tarkwa Circuit Court has sentenced an 18-year-old small-scale miner, Mohammed Razak, to 10 years imprisonment in hard labour for stealing mining equipment worth GH¢11,990.

Mohammed, who was recently jailed by the same court for a similar offence, pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing.

Chief Inspector Abraham Ayitey told the court, presided over by Mrs Hathia Ama Manu, that the complainant, Thomas Tetteh, is a small-scale miner and a resident of Wassa Japa in the Wassa Amenfi East Constituency.

The prosecution said Tetteh owned a small-scale mining site at Wassa Japa, but one month ago, he stopped mining because of water shortage and dismantled all his mining equipment. Chief Inspector said Tetteh kept the equipment at his site and planned to transport it to a place where it would be safe. Chief Inspector Ayitey said the next day, Tetteh went to his site only to realised his Changfa diesel engine valued GH¢8,000, pumping machine valued GH¢1,700 and crusher valued GH¢3,700 disappeared.

The prosecutor said Tetteh started making enquiries about the stolen items within the Wassa Japa community and that led him to the arrest of Razak.

He dragged him to the Wassa Akropong police station, reported the matter, and handed him over to the police for investigation. Chief Inspector Ayitey informed the court that Razak said he sold the equipment to a scrap dealer at Wassa Adiembra but when the police led him to help retrieve the stolen items, they could not trace the said scrap dealer.