Court remands banker for swindling employers

Accra, Oct. 19, GNA - An Accra Circuit Tribunal on Thursday remanded in prison custody, a Banker who falsified documents and allegedly stole 1.2 billion cedis, property of Databank Brokerage Limited.

Mohammed Motare, who until his arrest was the Head of Settlements Department of the Adabraka Branch of the Bank, allegedly used 200 million cedis out of the amount to purchase three vehicles. He is charged with two counts of forging documents and stealing. After presenting the facts of the case, Assistant Superintendent of Police, (ASP) George Abavelin, prayed the Court not to grant him bail since Police investigations were not completed.

Ms Jennifer Addo, who presided over the Tribunal, accordingly did not take the plea of Motare and remanded him in custody to reappear on October 31, 2006.

Mr Ephraim Vordoney, Counsel for Motare, told the Tribunal that the Prosecution did not explain why the plea of his client should not be taken.

"We are saying that the accused was charged on two counts of forgery and stealing and that under the Criminal Procedure Code, accused person is presumed innocent, until the contrary is proved." The facts of the case were that the complainant is the Associate Director and Head of Databank Brokerage Limited, while the accused was an employee.

ASP Abavelin said between 2004 and September 2006, the Adabraka Branch of the Bank noticed some irregularities with the Settlement of Trades and that the source of the irregularities was the "Transfer Letters," used in the settlement of trades.

He explained that transfer letters, were letters from a brokerage company to the Registrar of a company, instructing the Registrar to transfer shares from a seller to a buyer, based on transactions executed by the brokerage company on the floor of the exchange.

ASP Abavelin said on September 29, 2006 Databank received two orders to purchase 150,000 shares from SG-SSB.

He said on the two orders were different information, adding one of the orders indicated that a name mentioned as a shareholder was not a client.

This act, he said, created more suspicion and the Management of the Bank conducted thorough investigations into the activities of Motare. The Management detected that shares worth 1.2 billion cedis (1,209,141,722 cedis) were sold by the accused.

According to ASP Abavelin, the accused admitted during interrogations that he used 200 million cedis from the said amount to purchase three vehicles.