Teacher in court for stealing, defrauding by false pretence

Ernestina Koranteng, a 47-year-old teacher has appeared before an Accra Circuit Court for charged with stealing $11,000. She has also been accused of allegedly scamming a Ghanaian resident in the USA of $ 33,400 between 2020 and 2021. She is suspected of taking the various monies to build a house at Ablekuma-Joma in Accra and establish a pharmacy shop but failed to provide.

Ernestina Koranten , the accused sent the complainant to a facility, which was being rented on a short-stay basis at Dansoman saying that she bought that facility for the complainant.

She also claimed that she built the house, but it was later destroyed. Indicted on two counts of stealing and two counts of scamming by false pretence, Ernestina Koranteng denied the charges.

Mr Isaac Addo, the presiding judge at the  Accra Circuit Court court, has granted Koranteng to bail in the sum of one million Ghana cedis with three security providers, who must be within the court’s authority.

The court instructed the prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Daniel Ofori-Appiah, to conform to the rules governing disclosure of evidence. The case has been postponed until April 9, 2025.

Prosecution stressed that the complainant had Ghanaian citizenship who hailed from Akim Asafo in the Eastern Region but resided in the United States of America.

The individual facing charges was from Aburi in the Eastern Region but stayed at Dansoman, Accra. The court heard that in 2020, the complainant brought in an unlicensed Chevrolet Sonic salon car, priced at $5,500, and a VW Passat salon car,priced at $6,000 and commissioned the two cars in the care of Koranteng.

Prosecution stressed that she sold the two cars and told the complainant that the money was used to support the development the complainant’s parcel of land she (accused) had purchased for her at Ablekuma-Joma.

The prosecution said that the accuser further sent her various sums of money totaling $18,400 to be used for the development of the land. It said the accused person, in 2024, persuaded the complainant to send her $15,000 to open and operate a pharmacy for her and the complainant obliged.

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

Chief Inspector Ofori-Appiah said the complainant realized how things were going and reported the issue to the police on January 22, 2025, and as a result Ernestina koranteng was arrested the following day.

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

The accused person also provided false information to the complainant into sending her money for a pharmacy shop.