Criminals Sold Mobile Phones Made from Bars of Soap

Police in Ghana have arrested two people who are suspected of selling fake mobile phones - made from domestic soap. The two, Kwadwo Addei, 22 and Desmond Nkwah, 20 were among 30 others who were arrested by the Accra Regional Police Command in an operation to flush out illegal phone dealers in the capital city reports the local Daily Graphic newspaper.

It seems that the purchaser would be shown a box with a mobile phone and when they went to pay for it, the handset would be swapped with a model made from soap.

According to the Accra Regional Police Commander Deputy Commissioner of Police Douglas Akrofi Asiedu, the issue of mobile phone stealing had been a disturbing one and added that at a previous meeting with accredited dealers, concerns were raised about the activities of illegal phone dealers and the need to stop them.

Giving more details on the operation, he said the suspects were arrested for dishonestly receiving mobile phones for which they could not account. The Regional Police said mobile phones were usually snatched by thieves on unregistered motorbikes and then sold to mobile phone peddlers at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and its environs.

He said under the Accra Metropolitan Assembly's bye-laws on street hawking, it was a crime to sell on the streets, saying mobile phone sellers at the Nkrumah Circle were no exception, since their operations constituted an obstruction of traffic."

Posted to the site on 2nd August 2007