Bank clerk faces 98 counts for stealing customers’ monies

An Account Clerk with Adonteng Community Bank in the Eastern region has been charged with 98 count of offences for allegedly stealing bank deposits of 98 customers to the tune of Ghc182,303.63.

The accused person, Daniel Sogah Tetteh before the incident, was also the mobilization officer for the bank in charge of Ehiamankyene and Akyem Asafo.

Facts of the case presented in Court by Prosecuting Officer, Cyril Boateng Keteku, deputy Regional State Attorney has it that the complainant in the case, Felix Dompreh, is the General Manager of the Bank while the accused person for the past eight years was in Charge of the bank’s mobization in Akyem Asafo in the East Akyem District and Ehiamankyene in Fanteakwa district where he received cash deposits from customers and also paid to customers who withdraw monies from their accounts.

Audit conducted by Internal Auditors of the bank at the Ehiamankyene mobilization center of the bank uncovered a total of Ghc31,600 cash stolen by the accused.

Management of the Bank subsequently lodged complaint at the Police Station which led to the arrest of the accused person.

Further forensic audit into the operations of the accused person detected that, a total of GHC182,303.63 has actually been stolen by the accused person.

The modus operandi of the accused, according to the Prosecuting officer, is that, in some instances, the accused received deposit from customers, record same in their passbook but fails to deposit same in their accounts.Also the accused in some cases, inflate amount of withdrawals made by customers having recorded lesser amounts in their passbooks leaving the inflated figure in the withdrawal slip.

Also the auditors detected that, the accused person in other instances, deposited some monies misappropriated into the customers accounts without their knowledge.

The Auditors also found out that, in some instances, the accused person paid some customers as withdrawals and record in their passbook without making corresponding entries in the account system hence diverted the deposits into his pocket.

The accused had earlier been granted bail by a high court in koforidua pending the execution of the bail condition of Ghc200,000 with four sureties to be justified .However, has not been able to meet the bail requirement hence still on remand.

The case has been adjourned by Her Honour, Mercy Adei Kotei, Presiding judge of the Koforidua Circuit Court ‘B’.