Alleged forgery to evade GRA GH¢2,495,778 tax: Case adjourned to March 19

The case of Mi­chael Sumnaya Adedina, an accountant, ac­cused of forging Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) receipts, to evade GH¢2,495,778 tax, has been adjourned to March 19.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Evans Kesse told the Accra Circuit Court that the prosecution had filed its disclo­sures, which had been served on the accused.

The court, presided over by Mrs Afia Owusua Appiah, adjourned the matter for Case Management Conference.

Adedina has been charged with unauthorised attempts to collect tax, forgery of official documents, fraudulent breach of trust and making false or misleading statements.

He has denied the charges and is currently on GH¢2 mil­lion bail.

The case of prosecution is that the complainant is the country manager of BMG In­frastructure Company Limited, a foreign-owned mining waste processing company, located at Tarkwa in the Western Region.

The prosecution said Ade­dina introduced himself to the complainant as a professional accountant, who could prepare all their accounting books and represent their interest.

Consequently, the company outsourced all accounting mat­ters, including statutory payments and the preparation of various tax types with GRA and SSNIT for its employees, to Adedina.

Since his appointment in 2021, Adedina prepared and col­lected funds from the company at the end of each month to pay for the various tax handles.

The prosecution said that after each payment, Adedina provided the complainant with legitimate GRA receipts as con­firmation of payment.

The prosecution stated that on May 31, 2022, the GRA conducted a tax audit on the activities of BMG Infrastructure Limited and discovered a tax debt of GH¢2,495,778.00 against the company, raising suspicions.

The prosecution said that the company initiated an investiga­tion to determine the cause of the liability.

The court heard that inves­tigations found that the accused failed to pay all the money he obtained from BMG as taxes to GRA.

A report was submitted to GRA via GIPC with relevant receipts for verification, and it was discovered that Adedina had falsified GRA’s official receipts.

A complaint was made to the GRA Investigative Wing and Adedina was arrested.

The prosecution said Adedina admitted the crime in his caution statement, and disclosed that he downloaded the GRA payment receipts, modified them to add tax value and submitted the fake copies to the complainant as if actual taxes had been paid.

Adedina disclosed that he used part of the money to buy

 concessions for mining opera­tions, but the transaction went bad.

The prosecution said Adedina also indicated that he used a portion of the money to purchase a Toyota Hilux Pickup Truck, and a Lexus SUV for GH¢55,000 and built a four-bedroom home in Tarkwa, Aboso. —GNA

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