Bank officials appear in court for stealing GH?245,344

Two former employees of Kokomlemle Branch of Unibank Limited, who allegedly stole GH¢245,344 belonging to the bank appeared before an Accra Circuit Court on Wednesday.

The accused persons, Samuel Kanbonja Dandana and Kenderick Aryee Osumanu, pleaded not guilty to stealing and were granted bail of GH¢50,000 with two sureties to be justified.

The case has been adjourned to June 27.

Police Superintendent Kofi Blagodzi, prosecuting said the complainant was Head of Customer Banking of Kokomlemle Branch of Unibank Limited, while Dandana was in-charge of Consumer Banking Unit at the bank.

He said on January 18, the bank detected that GH¢28,000 was paid in by the Apostolic Faith Mission International but the accused fail to deposit the amount into the account of the customer.

A report was made to the Police and the accused was arrested and during investigations, admitted the offence and later refunded the money.

Supt Blagodzi said this compelled the company to institute an internal audit, during which it was detected that GH¢235,844 which was received by the accused between 2008 and 2012 for deposits into the church's bank account did not reflect.

He said further investigations revealed that the accused processed loans, which were approved by using certain ghost names as beneficiaries of five institutions, and this alerted the bank and the accused was immediately arrested and during investigations admitted the offence in his caution statement.

Supt Blagodzi said the bank detected that on August 12, 2008, a loan of GH¢9,500 was approved for one Francis Kyei, and the money was transferred into an account and when checked, it was in the name of Osumanu, who was arrested and in his caution statement admitted the offence.**