Between 15 July 2017 to 25 August 2017, Mohamed Alpha Kamara, was alleged to have stolen over Le400 million worth of fuel belonging to Foday Kamara. The accused was serving as one of the pumping managers at a petrol station in Kambia District. The police charged him with Fraudulent Conversion contrary to Section 20 (1)(4)(b) of the Larceny Act of 1916. On Friday 20 October 2017, the accused appeared before Magistrate Albert Moody of the Freetown Magistrate Court No.1 to answer to the charges.
Testifying in court, the complainant, Foday Kamara, said since he did not reside in Kambia, he instructed the accused to be giving the proceeds from the sale of fuel to his wife. “On the date in question, I gave him another instruction to hand over the money to my daughter, Warra Jalloh, because my wife was ill.”
He furthered that “within that period, I supplied 715,000 litres of fuel to the accused and the money which I received from my daughter is Le368,109,000 instead of Le450 million.” According to the witness, Le60,891,000 is yet to be accounted for.
Foday Kamara said he was on the verge of sending another 6,000 litres of fuel to the accused, when one of his boys at the station Adekalie Kamara revealed to him that the manager is no longer at the Station. He said he called the accused cell phone number several time but he didn’t get any respond and decided to order Adekalie to man the station until he comes back.
“I arrived four days later and I detected that there was no fuel in the tank.” He maintained that he searched for the accused for over a week until he reported the matter to one of the accused brothers.
According to the witness, the accused didn’t give him any relevant excuse, that’s why he decided to abandon the Station and not pick up his calls. He said as a result of that he reported the matter at the Kambia police station.
The accused was represented by J.M. Jengo, who applied for bail for his client but police prosecutor ASP Kamara objected to bail. Magistrate Moody remanded the accused at the Male Correctional Centre and adjourned the matter to 2 November 2017.
MJB/21/10/17
By Mohamed J. Bah
Monday October 23, 2017.
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