Gold robbery case was a hoax — Police

Gold robbery case was a hoax — Police
Story: Mary Mensah
IT has now been established that the alleged robbery of more than 25 kilogrammes of gold worth GH¢1.8 million belonging to a businessman at Tarkwa Nsuaem in the Western Region was a hoax.
Police investigations into the incident have revealed thatthe businessman, Victor Asherifi, concocted the story tothrow dust into the eyes of his many businness partners he owed.
For his action, Asherifi is to be arraigned on charges of deceit of public officer, causing fear and panic and possession of firearms without authority.
According to the Public Relations Officer at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Chief Inspector Joseph B. Darkwah, Asherifi is a known businessman in Tarkwa who deals in gold and has many customers who also deal in gold.
He said the customers had collectively given Asherifi a total of GH¢1,395,994.77 for the supply of gold to them.
He said when Asherifi could not honour his obligations to his customers, he faked the robbery in which he claimed that he had been robbed of 25 kilogrammes of gold he was carrying from Tarkwa to Accra which he had concealed under the driver’s seat in the Toyota Tundra pick-up he was driving on August 1, 2011.
According to Chief Inspector Darkwah, while Asherifi claimed that two  of his workers assisted him to parcel the gold in his office after which one of them assisted him to carry it into the Toyota Tundra pick-up, the two denied ever assisting him in anyway when they appeared before a committee set up by the Police Administration to look into the issue.
He said one of the workers also told the committee that gold purchases they made on that day were only 11 kilogrammes and not 25 kilogrammes.
Besides, it emerged during the investigations that Asherifi never personally travelled to deliver any gold to any of his customers, Chief Inspector Darkwah said, adding that two of his workers usually carried out that assignment on his behalf.
He said it came up during the investigations that Asherifi hardly travelled to Accra and on the few times that he did so, he went with a driver,  and said  it came as a surprise to all witnesses that he was driving to Accra alone with the 25 kilogramme gold.
On Asherifi’s claim that the alleged armed robbers crossed him at a spot which was only five minutes drive to Nsuaem resulting in him running into a ditch, Chief Inspector Darkwah said investigations revealed that his car never ran into a ditch, while it took him close to three hours before he reported the robbery to the police.
He said while policemen who arrived at the scene of the alleged robbery found a pistol lying on the right hand side of the rear seat of  Asherifi’s vehicle, Asherifi claimed in his statement that one of the robbers left his pistol under the driver’s seat after removing the gold.
“The Police Administration states authoritatively that no such robbery incident occurred on the said date and that the victim of the robbery staged the incident to win sympathy from members of the public and prevent his debtors from harassing him,” Chief Inspector Darkwa said, and warned members of the public to desist from acts that would cause fear and panic among the Ghanaian populace and scare away potential investors.
It would be recalled that the August 2, 2011 edition of the Daily Graphic carried a story about suspected robbers who had robbed the businessman of the gold while on his way to Accra.