A beneficiary of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Awuni Kwame Nelson, was on Wednesday remanded into prison custody for defrauding by false pretense.

A Tuobodom Magistrate’s Court presided over by His Lordship Abdul Baki, asked him to reappear on June 23, 2017, after he pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Boampong Isaac, the District Monitoring and Evaluation Officer with the YEA who represents the Regional Director of the YEA, told the court that the accused was a beneficiary of the YEA and received an appointment letter in October 2016.

The accused since October has been to the Offuman Methodist basic school, where he was posted to for only 12 times.

READ ALSO: Minority MPs dare YEA to publish list of deleted beneficiaries

He has, however, received salaries for four months, Mr Boampong told the court.

The accused on June 12 visited the school and asked for an assumption of duty letter to enable him to go for the new arrears being paid to beneficiaries.

But the Headmaster of the school refused to give him the letter and so the accused picked up a copy of the said letter from a friend and subsequently forged the signature of the Headmaster.

The accused then sent the letter through his friend to Mr. Abdulai Shaibu, the headmaster of Bonya D/A basic school in a nearby community asking him to stamp on it for him.

But Mr. Abdulai hinted the Monitoring and Evaluation officer on the actions of the accused and the case was reported to the police.

The accused was then arrested for questioning.

According to Mr. Boampong even though the accused admitted to the police of being guilty when arrested, he pleaded not guilty before the court.

READ ALSO: Over 16,000 workers expunged, country saved GH¢20million

The Acting Chief Executive Officer of YEA, Justin Frimpong recently announced the deletion of the names of 16,839 out of the Agency’s 63,000 beneficiary list.

According to him, the action was taken after an internal audit was conducted and that the country has been saved over 20 million cedis as a result.