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The Accra Circuit Court yesterday sentenced three persons to a total of 95 years� imprisonment with hard labour for engaging in armed robbery. The convicts are Raafew Abdul Mohammed, a 22-year-old trader, Odartey Willington and Mawuli Atidoh. Raafew was given 20 years for conspiracy to commit crime and 25 years for robbery, while Odartey was slapped with a 30-year sentence for conspiracy to rob and 40 years for robbery. Mawuli was also jailed 30 years for conspiracy to commit crime and 30 years for robbery. The sentences are to run concurrently. They all pleaded not guilty to the charges but were found guilty by the court after a full trial. Odartey, an ex-convict, was convicted for stealing and had been slapped with a three-year sentence in 1997 by the Adjabeng Court in Accra. Sentence Passing sentence, the court, presided over by Mr Francis Obiri, said robbery had today become rampant and �society should be free from such criminals�. �People need to be educated on the consequences of robbery because it now attracts a maximum sentence, meaning the sky is the limit, and for that reason the state takes a serious view of robbery,� Mr Obiri stated. �For Odartey, I do not think he wants to reform, as he has graduated from stealing to robbery,� he added. Fact of the case Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Emmanuel Afful told the court that the complainant was a trader at Teshie Okpoi-Gonnor, while Raafew and Odartey were both motor riders who lived at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra. He said on May 28, 2014, Raafew and Odartey, who were on an unregistered motorbike, went to the complainant�s shop under the pretext of buying something from the store but snatched a black bag containing GH�94 and some credit cards valued at GH�36 from the complainant. The prosecutor said the complainant raised an alarm and the accused persons were arrested by the people around. With regard to Mawuli, the prosecutor said on May 13, 2014, the convict hired the services of a taxi driver, one Awutey, from East Legon to the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and on reaching Shiashie, Mawuli asked the taxi driver to take him to Lapaz to solicit the services of a prostitute, which the driver obliged. At Lapaz, the prosecutor said Mawuli spoke to a number of prostitutes �but could not get his choice�. Mawuli then asked Awutey to drive him to the Kwame Nkrumah Circle where Mawuli met one prostitute and the three left in the taxi for Legon. When they reached a place close to the Richester Hotel, Mawuli pointed to a building as his house. The prosecutor said Mawuli then asked the prostitute to lend him her phone to enable him to call a co-tenant to open the gate, so that he could take some money and pay for the services of the taxi driver. The prostitute, he said, told Mawuli that she did not have credit on her phone, a response to which Mawuli asked her to get down and she obliged. �The convict pulled out a knife and snatched her bag, after which he threatened the taxi driver and collected his sales from him at knife-point,� he added. Chief Inspector Afful said a report was made to the police and the convict was later arrested.