An Accra Circuit Court has sentenced an Indian national, Shubham Sharma, to five years’ imprisonment for possessing forged foreign and local currencies.

The court heard that Sharma, a manager, had in his possession fake GH¢200 notes totalling GH¢1,976,000 and counterfeit US$100 notes amounting to US$191,900.

He was found to have dishonestly appropriated his employer’s money and replaced it with forged notes.

The prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Wisdom Alorwu, told the court that the complainant, a businessman and Chief Executive Officer of a company that manufactures air fresheners, reported that Sharma, a former manager of the firm, had replaced genuine cash with counterfeit notes.

The court, presided over by Mr Joseph Yennuban Kunsong, sentenced Sharma to four years’ imprisonment for possessing fake local currency and five years for possessing fake foreign currency. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Sharma had already spent more than nine months in custody before the sentencing.

The court also ordered officials of the Ghana Police Service, the Bank of Ghana and the Registrar of the court to ensure the destruction of the forged notes.

In addition, it directed that Sharma be deported after serving his prison sentence.

According to the prosecution, investigations revealed that Sharma, who was responsible for receiving and keeping company cash, broke into his employer’s safe while the businessman was on a trip abroad and replaced unspecified amounts of genuine US dollars with counterfeit notes.

Further checks at the company also showed that Sharma had substituted large sums of Ghana cedis with fake GH¢200 notes.

The Bank of Ghana later confirmed that the seized notes were counterfeit.

During investigations, Sharma admitted to keeping the forged notes in the office.