Stanbic Bank worker, Martha Amakye sentenced to 8 yrs in prison for defrauding customers ¢1.8m
The Accra High Court has sentenced a 34-year-old outsourced worker of Stanbic Bank, Martha Amakye to eight years imprisonment for swindling several customers of the bank to the tune of GH₵1.8 million.
The court presided over by Mrs Justice Afia Serwaa Asare- Botwe found her guilty of the offence and sentenced her on Thursday, June 15.
Graphic Online reports that she had been accused of exploiting 246 customers of the bank by collecting various sums of money from them between 2015 and 2016 on the pretext of investing it in fixed deposits which would yield the unsuspecting customers an interest rate of between 18 and 20 per cent per month.
It was discovered that Amakye had made a bogus fixed deposit, which the bank did not give its approval.
A total of 31 counts of defrauding by false pretence were proffered against her, but she pleaded not guilty to the charges. However, the court found her guilty, saying the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Amakye was therefore jailed for eight years for each count, which would run concurrently.
In addition to the prison sentence, the court went further to direct to retrieve all the monies that Amakye scammed the customers of. She had failed to voluntarily refund the stolen money.
Amakye’s sentencing came just days after the arrest of a 25-year-old contract employee of one of Ghana’s biggest banks, Emmanuel Sakyi Afriyie for allegedly stealing about GH1.2 million from clients’ bank accounts.
Some of the accounts from which the suspect allegedly took money belong to a judge and a previous Inspector General of Police, both of whom are deceased.
He allegedly transferred some of the funds to his own account in another bank, the accounts of his 17 collaborators in various banks, and their mobile money accounts. He is also accused of using some of the funds to purchase an iPhone 14 Pro Max and a Toyota Camry.
Before Afriyie’s arrest, he had intended to sneak away with his girlfriend to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates after purchasing an airline ticket.
However, luck eluded him as, the security authorities acted quickly, laid a trail for him, and apprehended him at the Kotoka International Airport on June 4, 2023.
The accused person is alleged to have carried out the fraudulent transactions using his boss’ password.
He allegedly discreetly recorded his employer using a mobile phone as she entered her password, and he later examined the clip to determine the password she was using.
Afriyie then transferred the funds from the customers’ accounts within two months.
Some of his accomplices were later arrested and brought before a court and held in detention before they were eventually granted bail.
Afriyie is accused of several offences, including conspiracy and theft alongside some of his aides.
He is the only one facing additional charges of falsifying accounts and forging other documents, raising his total number of accusations against him to 13, all of which he pleaded not guilty to.
He is expected to reappear before a court presided over by Ellen Ofei-Ayeh on June 16, 2023.
Meanwhile, eleven more alleged accomplices are still at large, and police investigation continues.
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