A 47-year-old teacher has appeared before an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly stealing $11,000. 

Ernestina Koranteng is also being held for allegedly defrauding a Ghanaian resident in the USA of $33,400 between 2020 and 2021. 

She is alleged to have collected the various monies to put up a house at Ablekuma-Joma in Accra and establish a pharmacy shop but failed to deliver. 

The accused rather took the complainant to a facility, which was being rented on a short stay basis at Dansoman claiming that she rather bought that facility for the complainant. 

She also alleged that she built the house, but it was later demolished. 

Charged with two counts of stealing and two counts of defrauding by false pretence, Koranteng has pleaded not guilty. 

The court, presided over by Mr Isaac Addo, has admitted Koranteng to bail in the sum of one million Ghana cedis with three sureties, who must be within the jurisdiction of the court. 

The court ordered the prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Daniel Ofori-Appiah, to comply with the rules of disclosures. 

The case has been adjourned to April 9, 2025. 

Prosecution said the complainant was a Ghanaian who hailed from Akim Asafo in the Eastern Region but domiciled in the United States of America. 

The accused was from Aburi in the Eastern Region but resided at Dansoman, Accra, 

The court heard that in 2020, the complainant imported an unregistered Chevrolet Sonic salon car, valued at $5,500, and a VW Passat salon car, valued at $6,000 and entrusted the two cars in the care of Koranteng. 

Prosecution said she sold the two cars and told the complainant that she was using the proceeds to develop the complainant’s parcel of land she (accused) had acquired for her at Ablekuma-Joma. 

The complainant further sent her various sums of money to the tune of $18,400 to be used to develop the land, prosecution said. 

It said the accused person, in 2024, convinced the complainant to send her $15,000 to open and operate a pharmacy for her and the complainant obliged. 

Prosecution narrated that in December 2024, the complainant returned to Ghana and asked the accused to take her to the house she built for her and the pharmacy. 

The accused took the complainant to a house at Dansoman with GPS Number GA-507-7636 and pointed same to the complainant as the house she bought for her. 

“When the complainant requested the accused to open the house for inspection, the accused claimed the caretaker had travelled,” the prosecution said. 

The complainant requested to see the pharmacy, but the accused told her there was no pharmacy, the prosecutor said. 

Chief Inspector Ofori-Appiah said the complainant became alarmed and reported the matter to the police on January 22, 2025, and Koranteng was arrested the following day. 

Prosecution said investigations revealed that the house at Dansoman was not for the complainant but was often offered for rent on a short stay basis. 

The accused person also deceived the complainant to send her money for a pharmacy shop. 

On January 23, 2025, the accused person led the police to a bare land at Ablekuma-Joma and pointed same as the land on which she built the house, but it was demolished. 

Investigations, however, revealed that no house was demolished on the said land.