An Adentan Circuit Court has sentenced a mobile banker to six years imprisonment for embezzling GH¢162,700 belonging to customers of a Rural Bank.
This was after the Rural Bank (name withheld) is said to have audited her accounts.
Grace Addy, 29, is said to have collected the money and channelled the money through other mobile money accounts for her personal use and to facilitate her travelling abroad.
Charged with forgery of documents, and two counts of stealing, Grace pleaded guilty.
Grace was sentenced to two years imprisonment on the charge of forgery of documents, three years on the charge of stealing GH¢20,000, belonging to a customer and six years for stealing GH¢142,700.
Sentences are to run concurrently, the court presided over by Mrs Sedinam Awo Balokah said.
The prosecution led by Chief Inspector A. Fosu told the relieving Judge that the complainant was the Manager of the Rural Bank at Madina.
The prosecution said the accused person was an employee of the bank who collected the bank’s customers’ money directly at their various places of abode and workplaces.
The court heard that the complainant reported that on December 27, 2023, an audit was conducted on the activities of the accused.
It said the audit revealed that the accused person had stolen an amount of GH¢142,700, belonging to the bank’s customer which she had collected from customers but failed to account for the money to the bank.
The prosecution said during investigations, it was realised that the accused person between January 2023 to December 21, 2023, collected money from the bank’s customers but failed to deposit the money with the bank.
According to the prosecution, the accused person rather transferred the money to other mobile money numbers for her personal use.
The accused forged receipts of payment to a customer known as Salifu Alhassan which she interpolated GH¢20,000 issued from the bank to GH¢40,000 before handing over the same to the customer, creating the false belief that she had paid GH¢40,000 to the bank, the Prosecutor said.
The prosecution said the accused person voluntarily informed the Police that she indeed stole a total of GH¢162,700 and that she had given the same to three men who had charged her $16,000 to facilitate her travelling abroad but failed to lead the Police to those three men.
In her charge statement, the accused person mentioned that she gave the entire money to one Hamisu at Libya Quarters, Madina to process the travelling documents for her and not the three men.
The prosecution said the accused indicated that she had in mind to pay the customers after her arrival abroad.