GCB staff in court for stealing over GH¢350,000 from accounts
A banker who is accused of siphoning GH¢356,100.00 from various accounts with Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) has appeared before an Accra Circuit Court on Thursday.
Frednard Kofi Amponsah, an employee of the Bank, and Issah Abdul aka Issah Alhassan have been charged with conspiracy and stealing.
The two have pleaded not guilty to the charges and have been admitted to bail in the sum of GH¢400,000.00 with four sureties each with a justification.
The accused persons are to deposit their passport to the court’s registry and report to the Criminal Investigations Department every Wednesday.
The case had been adjourned to December 29 by the Court presided over by Mrs Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku.
Prosecuting Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) George Amega said Amponsah is stationed at the Takoradi branch of GCB and Abdul is an auto-mechanic and a customer of the Bank.
DSP Amega said during the period between September and November this year, Management of GCB Bank, Accra, received complaints on fraudulent withdrawals from various customers’ accounts.
According to the prosecutor, these withdrawals were carried out with cheques found to be “cloned cheques,” drawn on accounts located at the Bank’s branches in Accra.
Prosecution said it was established that while the true account holders had their genuine cheque books intact, replicated copies of leaflets bearing the serial numbers of leaflets not yet issued by account holders were produced with forged signatures.
DSP Amega said these cloned leaflets were drawn on the Bank and presented at braches outside Accra and various withdrawals made.
The Prosecutor said the Police established that four accounts of the Bank had fraudulent withdrawals made on them.
Police investigation revealed that Amponsah even though stationed at Takoradi at the Corporate Banking used his identification number FC07072 which was assigned to him at Mampong to make several enquiries on the accounts prior to or after the cloned cheques were presented.
Based on that, prosecution said Amponsah was nabbed and during Police investigations, he admitted the offence and disclosed that it was upon the request of Abdul that he made enquiries on the account.
According to the Prosecutor, Amponsah also indicated that he took photographs of signature mandates, cheque book serial numbers, photographs and other confidential details of high valued accounts holders, which he forwarded to Abdul and others.
It came to light that Amponsah in his current deployment was not permitted to check or query individual customer accounts of the Bank but he was engaged in these activities secretly in collaboration with accomplices to steal money from the Bank.
Prosecution said cloned cheques presented at various branches of the Bank had resulted in the theft of GH₡ 356,100.00.
Prosecution said Amponsah had admitted receiving money from Abdul and claims to own two houses at Kosoa , which were built from the proceeds of the crime.
Prosecution said seven other accounts have also been identified as being used by Amponsah and other staff of the Bank and huge withdrawals made.
The Prosecutor said investigations were underway.
Source: GNA