AN ACCRA Circuit Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of Clement Alexander Clements, Managing Director of Bluessoil Investments Limited.
The accused person is before the court charged with one count of defrauding by false pretences and five counts of issuing false cheque.
The suspect allegedly defrauded Humanu Energy Limited of an amount of over GH¢42 million after he failed to pay for over 18 million litres of petroleum products he acquired from the complainant company.
The court, presided over by His Honour Kwabena Obiri-Yeboah, issued the bench warrant after Clement failed to appear before the court.
This was after several reminders of the criminal action brought against him in connection with defrauding Humano Energy Limited had been made to him.
Humano Energy Limited is owned by Richard Owusu Atuahene.
According to the facts of the case, the accused entered into an agreement with Humano Energy Limited to receive and distribute 18,243,500 litres of petroleum products to be sold to large and medium scale consumers in accordance with Ghana Petroleum Authority (GPA) regulations.
Per the contract, the accused was to pay specified charges associated with the products, including NPA, BOST and Customs charges.
He, however, allegedly diverted and sold the products to customers other than those designated on the accompanying waybills, thereby failing to pay all the requisite taxes which amounted to over GH¢20 million.
Mr. Clements evaded the payment of all statutory charges in respect of the products sold and refused to pay the product cost and charges as specified.
The accused, in a bid to make part payment for the product, issued five separate Omnibank and HFC bank cheques totaling GH¢10,807,655 but were both dishonoured because the respective accounts did not have sufficient funds.
According to court documents, the accused person admitted the offence during investigations and refunded an amount of GH¢3,841,127.70 to the police in tranches.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak