Loving Cee returns from prison to yob

Kumasi radio presenter, Loving Cee, could not have told a bigger lie when he denied on various radio stations last week that he had never been to prison.
Indeed, according to prison sources, Loving Cee a.k.a. Willian des Bordes, was taken to Kumasi Central Prison on Wednesday July 16, 2008 to begin a one week remand prison term slapped on him by an Ashanti New Town Circuit Court when he made his first appearance on a fraud charge.
Loving Cee however spent only one night in prison following an appeal filed by his lawyers at the High Court to secure bail for him the following day.
When he eventually resurfaced in court last week Wednesday, Loving Cee was to answer a charge of defrauding by false pretences after he lodged at the Cedar Crescent Hotel in Danyame, Kumasi between December and June 2008 with his wife and two children. He is said to have piled up a substantial bill for the six months stay at the hotel, deceived the hotel management and paid part of his bills leaving him with GH¢5940. He is also alleged to have engaged the hotel manager, Ruth Naa Bekoe, in a row over his unpaid bills on the day he was checking out of the hotel. The matter was reported to the police and subsequently sent to court. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The prosecution, led by Inspector Margaret Anhwere Mensah told the court presided over by Mr Owusu Afriyie that the accused (William Des Bordes) enjoyed various services at the hotel including laundry, food and drinks.
Giving evidence in court Ruth Naa Bekoe, the hotel manager said that the accused checked in at the hotel on December 25, 2008 and stayed there with his wife and two children (boys). The witness said even though the hotel rooms at Cedar Crescent went for GH¢70 and GH¢65 respectively per day, she agreed to give the room to the accused at a discounted rate of GH¢55 to which the accused made a deposit of GH¢100 with the explanation that he was staying for three nights. She said the accused did not leave the hotel when the three nights elapsed and continued to stay there till January 20, 2008 piling up a bill of GH¢2017.20 which included food and drinks as well as accommodation. The witness said she however asked the accused to pay just GH¢2000 to offset all his indebtedness as of that time to which the accused paid. However, the witness said the accused did not check out of the hotel and continued to stay there with the explanation that he had been detailed by Deutsche Welle (DW) Radio to cover the 2008 African Cup of Nations, hence he would stay for a while.
The accused further told the hotel management that DW Radio would be paying his bills so they should give him some time to take the money from them for onward payment.
The witness said she told the accused that, he checked in as an individual and that the hotel did not have any contract with DW Radio or the accused person’s current employers, Angel FM, so he should be paying his bills himself.
She said Des Bordes later paid GH¢500 and GH¢400 respectively on separate days in February to offset part of his indebtedness but he continued to stay at the hotel. She said the accused did not pay any money to the hotel from then on until May 10, 2008 when he paid GH¢1000 and June 3, 2008 when he paid GH¢500.
Prior to that, she said anytime they demanded money from him, he requested that one of the hotel staff should go with him to the office or to town for him to get money for them but on all occasions the hotel staff returned to the hotel without any money.
She said the accused on all the occasions abandoned the person he went with to town and the person had to find his way back to the hotel without the money. The witness said at the end of the month of May, she told the accused that she had received a contract to rent out all the rooms at the hotel and that the people who had rented it would be checking in on June 21, 2008 so she would want the accused to vacate his room by then. She said the accused subsequently asked her to prepare his bills for him so as to enable him settle it before he left to which she did and presented him with a bill of GH¢6940 as of June 18, 2008 to which the accused accepted and put his signature against the bill. The witness said the following day on June 19, 2008 the accused came to the hotel with a pick up and a friend and started packing his stuff into the car. She claimed she went to enquire about the payment of the bill and the accused responded that he would sort it out later but she claimed she refused to accept that explanation saying she needed to collect the money since the accused checked in at the hotel as an individual and needed to settle all his debts before he moved out. She said the exchanges resulted in a row and the friend of the accused moved the pickup out of the hotel premises, screeching in a manner that caused a stone to hit and injure an eight-month-old daughter of the witness. The witness said the matter was reported to Ridge Police Station and a medical form was issued for the little girl to be taken to hospital.
She said the matter was later transferred to the Central Police station where the accused did not accept the bill presented to him and felt he was being cheated. She stated that the police commander at the Central Police Station tried to resolve the matter and asked that if the accused claimed he did not accept the bill, then he should go back to the hotel and sit down with them and go through the bill to iron out the rough edges. She said the accused later paid GH¢1000 to the police as part of his indebtedness and boycotted all other meetings to resolve the matter until the matter came to court. Last Wednesday (August 6, 2008) when the matter was called in court the manager of the hotel, Ms Ruth Naa Bekoe who had earlier given evidence was cross examined by counsel for the accused, Mr Kwabena Poku Mensah. The counsel contended that the witness did not provide receipts for all payments made in respect of the accused's stay at the hotel. But the witness disagreed with him and said receipts were issued. The witness said she was waiting for the accused to make full payment of his indebtedness so as to issue him with a VAT receipt. Counsel: Are you aware he is an employee of Deutsche Welle (DW) and that DW was responsible for paying his bills. Witness: No. He did not tell us at the beginning that DW was responsible for his bills. He came in as an individual and that it was only when we demanded payment from him that he told us that he would take the money from DW and give it to us. The counsel contended that that the witness knew that the accused was a radio presenter and had worked with DW Radio, hence she threatened to tarnish his image. The counsel maintained that the witness asked the accused to pack his belongings out of the hotel and that the accused did not go out on his own volition but the witness disagreed with the counsel and said she gave the accused three weeks’ notice to move out. The prosecution said it has three more witnesses to call. The case was adjourned to August 18, 2008.
Des Bordes recently returned from Germany where he worked with Deutshe Welle (DW) Radio for five years. He has since been signed on to work with Angel FM in Kumasi after his work contract with DW Radio expired and was not renewed for him and subsequently asked to move to his homeland Ghana.
Meanwhile information gathered by Graphic Showbiz indicates that last Tuesday (August 5, 2008) des Bordes, in the middle of his programme rushed out of the studio of Angel FM with a mixer and crushed it on the ground to the surprise of staff and onlookers including drivers and passengers who were driving past the front of the radio station.
The cause of des Bordes’ action was not clear but it was learnt that technicians at the station had just done a new setup at the studio with the mixer.
Instead of calling for a technical assistance when he tried to use the mixer and it was not working for him, he got angry and removed the mixer from the studio and crushed it outside on the car park.
When contacted, officials of Angel FM refused to comment on the incident.