Serial palm fruit thief saved

A serial palm fruit thief has been allowed another opportunity to prove his worthiness after his sentence was truncated.

Crime Check Foundation (CCF) paid Two Thousand One Hundred Ghana cedis court fine of Maxwell Asare to free him.

The young man was jailed for 24 months at the Koforidua Local Prison.

After several daring criminal acts, luck eluded the notorious thief when he turned his attention to a palm plantation at Akyemso in the Eastern Region to steal palm fruits.

“I have been stealing for a long time,” he spoke to crimecheckghana.org

According to Maxwell, he stole 46 bunches of palm fruits in his first attempt but was ‘hunted’ down by security personnel at the plantation subjecting him to near-death beatings.

“After mobbing me, they sent me to the police station and I was locked up in custody for two weeks,” he said.

But the 24-year-old man was not deterred. He said he made a second attempt to steal more of the palm fruits but also failed when the tricycle he hired to convey the produce broke down in the middle of the farm.

“When the tricycle broke down the security personnel patrolling the farm that dawn met me with the faulty bike. My accomplices bolted but I could not abandon the tricycle which would have been impounded,” he recounted.

Maxwell was arrested and arraigned before Court. The presiding judge sentenced him to 24 months imprisonment after hearing that it was not his first time stealing the fruits.  

The ex-convict confided in Crime Check Foundation (CCF) when it paid a routing working visit to the Awutu Camp Prison where Maxwell was transferred to complete his sentence.

The visit was part of the implementation of the Foundation’s ‘Time With The Prisoner’ programme through which the general public is cautioned against crime.