A 30-year-old taxi driver has been arrested for allegedly speeding off after fuelling his vehicle at a service station on the Mallam-Kasoa road in Accra, without paying for the fuel.
Thomas Yaw Frimpong was arrested by policemen on patrol when he sped off after a fuel attendant at the Engen Service Station near the Oblogo Junction had pumped 38 litres of fuel into the tank of his taxi.
The police had to shoot one of the tyres of the taxi to bring it to a stop and gave Frimpong a hot chase when he abandoned his car and attempted to escape.
Leakage
The Accra Regional Police Crime Officer, Chief Superintendent of Police, Mr Paul Kontomah, said Frimpong, who was driving a Nissan Sentra taxi, drove to the fuel service station about 4:30 a.m. on December 3 and asked the fuel attendant to fill the tank.
He said while the fuel attendant was filling the tank, a police patrol vehicle drove to the service station and one of the policemen spotted a leakage under the car.
[contextly_sidebar id=”pc03Y8DUDO0ECwbIVJvdHyJVgRqkevh1″]“When Frimpong was alerted to the leakage, he told the attendant to stop pumping the fuel, so that he could park his car at a safe place and find out the cause of the leakage,” Mr Kontomah said.
He said at that point the fuel dispenser indicated that 38 litres of fuel, valued at GH¢128, had been pumped into the tank.
He said Frimpong drove to a distance, parked the car, came out and pretended he wanted to find out the cause of the leakage but instead jumped into the car and sped off. The attendant then raised an alarm.
Two registration numbers
The police patrol team gave the fleeing driver a chase and when it tried to take down the registration number of the taxi, the team realised that there was just GE on the plate.
The team had to fire a shot to deflate a tyre of the taxi before the police could apprehend the driver who, at that stage, attempted to abandon the car and escape on foot.
Mr Kontomah said a search in the car revealed that the number plate had been broken into two and that one part, with the number 48-09, was hidden in the car.
The manager of the Engen Service Station (name withheld) told the police that about a month ago a taxi driver, suspected to be Frimpong, played a similar prank on an attendant at the station.
Frimpong has since been charged for stealing.
Source: Graphic Online