Stanchart Sued Over Fraudulent ATM Withdrawals

By Dominic Jale

Accra - MR. S. A. X Tsegah, an Accra legal practitioner, has filed a writ at an Accra High Court against Standard Chartered Bank over what he called fraudulent withdrawals of ?13.1 million from his personal account.

In his statement of claim, Tsegah said an amount of ?13.1 million had been fraudulently withdrawn from his personal account through the Automated Tell Machine (ATM) Fast Cash Machine and wrongly debited to him.

According to the plaintiff, he received a document from the bank inviting him to join the ATM fast cash withdrawal system introduced into the country not long ago.

Tsegah said he was issued with a Personal Identification Number (PIN) and a card which is known to the bank clerk, who issued it, and him (the plaintiff).

The plaintiff stated he never gave his PIN and the ATM Card to any person and did not compromise them with any person.

Tsegah said that he had sufficient money in his personal account, but when he issued two cheques in April, this year, they bounced.

The plaintiff said upon his request, a bank statement was submitted to him on April 28, this year. Showing many ATM withdrawals debited against his accounts in spite of the fact that he has since the beginning of the year not made any ATM cash withdrawals.

The plaintiff said that after receiving the statement, he challenged the bank and requested it to refer the said fraudulent and bogus withdrawals from their ATM Fast Cash Machine to the police and reverse the ?13.1 million debited to his accounts.

According to the plaintiff, the defendants refused to refer the matter to the police for investigations but intimated by a letter dated May 6, 1999, and written by the bank's solicitor that the defendants have instituted investigation into the matter and also made it clear that they (the defendants) were not going to reverse the ?13.1 million fraudulently withdrawn from his personal account.

The plaintiff stated that on April 12, this year, he was admitted to Cocoa Clinic, Accra and discharged on April 19, this year. while on admission,he stated, his link card was in his wardrobe but surprisingly after his discharge his statement of accounts supplied by the defendants showed six withdrawals from the ATM fast cash withdrawal machine totalling ?1million.

The plaintiff said the statement of account supplied by the defendants showing the ATM fast withdrawals and number of withdrawals made per day indicated that a gang of crooks had fraudulently obtained his PIN Number and used bogus cards, or no cards to withdraw monies from ATM the fast machine.

The plaintiff says since he did not compromise with his PIN Number or card the said fraud was committed on the defendants and it was incumbent on the defendants to refer the whole matter to the police for investigation since there is the likelihood that some staff of the bank might have been involved in the said matter.

In their statement of defence, the bank said that if the plaintiff had kept his ATM card in his wardrobe, as he alleged, without using it, no withdrawal could have been made from his account.

The defendants stated that each moneylink cardholder of the Bank is assigned a unique card number which is computer generated and it is impossible to have two or more cardholders possessing the same number.

The defendants claimed that upon their own investigation into the plaintiff's complaint, the bank was satisfied that all the withdrawals made through the plaintiff's account were done with the ATM card issued to the plaintiff by the defendants, and, therefore, there was no need to refer the matter to the police.