After a seven-year legal battle, popular Ghanaian pastor, Hammond Love, commonly known as Pastor Love, has been sentenced to 48 months in prison with hard labor for theft.
The ruling was handed down by the Accra Circuit Court after Pastor Love, the ex-husband of gospel singer Obaapa Christie, was found guilty of stealing a vehicle entrusted to him.
Before the sentence was pronounced, Pastor Love pleaded with the court for leniency.
He expressed willingness to pay any fine the court would impose rather than face imprisonment.
Despite his appeal, the presiding judge, Isaac Addo, emphasized that as a pastor, Pastor Love was expected to uphold a higher standard of integrity, particularly in matters involving trust.
As a first-time offender, the court considered his plea but determined that a prison sentence was necessary to serve as a deterrent.
According to Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Frimpong, the incident dates back to 2016, when Samuel Amankwah, a resident of the United States, shipped a 4×4 vehicle to Ghana.
He tasked Pastor Love with clearing the vehicle from the port, agreeing that the pastor could sell it for USD 50,000 and deduct the clearing costs from the sale.
However, Amankwah later decided to hold off on the sale, intending to return to Ghana and personally refund Pastor Love’s clearing expenses.
In April 2017, when Amankwah returned to Ghana, he contacted Pastor Love to retrieve his vehicle.
Despite multiple demands, Pastor Love was unable to produce the car.
Growing frustrated, Amankwah filed a complaint with the police, leading to Pastor Love’s arrest in May 2017.
During police interrogations, Pastor Love explained that he had borrowed GHS 40,000, with a 20 percent interest rate, to cover the vehicle’s clearing costs. He claimed that the accumulating interest forced him to sell the vehicle for GHS 80,000 without the owner’s consent.
Out of this amount, Pastor Love allegedly paid GHS 70,000 to the loan company.
However, Pastor Love could neither provide the identity of the buyer nor direct the police to the loan company to verify his claim.
The judge concluded that Pastor Love’s account lacked credibility and that his failure to produce substantial evidence pointed to dishonesty throughout the trial.
