Ghana Commercial Bank staff charged over GH¢356,000 theft

Two persons, including a banker at the Takoradi branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) Limited, have been dragged before an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly stealing over GHS356,000 belonging to the bank.

They are Ferdinand Kofi Amponsah, the banker and Issah Alhassan aka Issah Alhassan, an auto-mechanic and customer of the bank.

The two, according to the prosecution, led by DSP George Amega, between September and November, this year in Accra conspired to steal the said amount belonging to the bank.

Appearing before the court, presided over by Mrs. Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku, the accused persons denied the charges.

The duo was subsequently granted bail in the sum of GHS400,000 with four sureties, one of which to be justified.

As part of the bail conditions, the accused persons are to deposit their passports at the registry of the court and to report to the police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) every Wednesday.

Sitting continues on December 29, 2016.

Prosecuting, DSP Amega said between September and November 2016, the management of the bank received complaints from customers about fraudulent withdraws.

He said the withdrawals were carried out with cloned cheques drawn on accounts located at the bank’s branches in Accra.

The prosecutor stated that it was established that while the true account holders had their genuine cheque books intact, replica copies of leaflets bearing the serial numbers of leaflets which were not yet used by the account holders were procured with forged signatures.

DSP Amega noted that “these cloned leaflets are drawn on the bank and presented at branches outside Accra and various withdrawals made.

It was established that four accounts of the bank had fraudulent withdrawals made on them.”

Investigation revealed that Ferdinand even though stationed at Takoradi at the Corporate Banking Department 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 which he was arrested.

During police investigations, Ferdinand admitted the offence and told the police that it was upon the request of Issah that he made enquiries on the accounts.

Ferdinand further told the police that he took photographs, signature mandates, cheques book serial numbers, photographs and other confidential details of High Valued Account Holders which he forwarded to Issah and others.

DSP Amega argued that the GCB banker was not permitted to check or query individual customer accounts of the bank but he was engaged in this activity secretly in collaboration with his accomplices to steal monies from the bank, adding that between the said dates, six of the cloned cheques presented at various branches of the bank resulted in the theft of GHS356,100.

Ferdinand, according to the prosecutor, admitted receiving money from Issah and admitted ownership of two houses at Kasoa believed to have been built with the proceeds from the crime.

Seven other accounts are said to have been affected.