A 25 year-old former contract staff of Absa Bank Ghana, Emmanuel Sakyi Afriyie has made his seventh appearance in court but his trial has once again been adjourned.

The Accra circuit court adjourned Emmanuel and 11 others trial to August 28 and September 18, 2023, to afford the Attorney-General (A-G) the opportunity to submit a report whether it will pursue the case or not.

This was after the court was told by the A-G representative, Lawrencia Adeka, that her office was taking over the prosecution of the case from the police.

Severally, the police prosecution had notified the court that it has referred to docket of the Republic versus Emmanuel and others to the A-G office for advice.

The police prosecution maintained this position for about four consecutive times, and upon which the court also threatened to strike out the case twice.

The court, being managed by Her Honour Ellen Ofei-Ayeh, gave the A-G a month to submit the report while Emmanuel, first accused (A1) in the trial, who has since March this year remains in police custody was brought before her.

Counsels for the accused persons also prayed the court to strike out the case for unnecessary delays on the part of the prosecution but it was turned down.

The court has granted the other accused persons bail in the sum of GH¢200,000.00 with two sureties, who are gainful employed, and earning not less than GH¢2,500 a month.

Background

Emmanuel Sakyi Afriyie, now a businessman, has pleaded not guilty to 13 charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, stealing, forgery of other documents, and falsification of accounts.

The rest are Cecil Nyamesem Agyarkwa (A2), Richard Aikins (A3), Michael Tweneboah Oppong (A4), Fouad Mohammed (A5) and Caleb Bandoh (A6), Nicholas Nii Sai (A9), and Nana Kwesi Gyimah (A10).

The others are Benjamin Adoari (A11), Boadu Nana Yaw Adjei (A13), Joseph D Anim (A14) and Othniel Amankwah Darkwa (A17).The police are yet to arrest Clinton Asamoah (A7), Kwame Owusu Buadu (A8), Daniel Osei (A12), Ernest Aryee (A15), and Isaac De-Heer (A16).

They have pleaded not guilty to stealing and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Brief Facts

The prosecuting officer narrated to the court that Nana Addo Ampem-Darko, Head of Fraud Detection and Operations at Absa Bank Ghana Limited, is the complainant in the case.According to him, A1 is a resident of Labone and until May this year, he was contracted as Processing Officer at the bank.

He added that Cecil is 26 years old and a student at the University of Ghana, Legon, Richard, 31, a trader, Michael, 25, also a trader, Fouad, 32, a System Administrator and Caleb, 25, an entrepreneur.

He told the court that Al was employed by Absa bank as a contract staff in the month of February 2022 and was posted to Osu branch as a Processing Officer, whose job description was to assist customers in loan processing, T-bill processing, debit card processing, dormant account activation and customer account maintenance among others.

C/Insp. Anquandah said due to Emmanuel’s job description, he worked on several accounts, including that of Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s bonus and savings accounts.However, somewhere in February 2023, Al registered for an online coding course, which the renewable annual subscription fee was USD 174.30, equivalent to GH¢2,287.69.

Unfortunately, instead of A1 to pay for the course out of his own pocket, he rather made the payment on Rev Cynthia Patricia Asamoah’s Visa card on February 6, 2023.As a result, the complainant and the Fraud team of the bank were gathering evidence on the matter to engage Al, but the latter made a swift move to tender in his resignation letter, effective May 31, 2023.

The sudden resignation and the alleged illegal transaction on the customer’s visa card by A1 made the bank officials more suspicious to investigate him in other areas.

The complainant, together with the fraud team, made up of the bank’s IT experts, detected that on April 20, 2023 Al by his own machination accessed one of his colleague’s User ID and password to change the contact number on another customer, Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s accounts.

So, on April 21, 2023 Al personally set up an internet and mobile banking access on Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s accounts, using his own User ID and password, after which he had access and started operating on the accounts without the victim customer receiving SMS alert.

Therefore, from April 21 to May 12, 2023, Al with full access to the Ekua Ewuduwa’s account, fraudulently transferred a total of GH¢945,133.00 including charges from the accounts to a number of people.

First and foremost, he transferred GH¢90,000.00 to Cecil’s girlfriend, Rhoda Abena Gransimaa Panyin Quansah’s Cal bank and Fidelity bank accounts; GH¢180,000.00 to Richard’s Cal bank account; GH¢30,000.00 to Michael’s Cal bank account and GH¢30,000.00 to Fouad’s GT bank account.

Caleb also received GH¢30,000.00 in his Cal bank account, Kwame and Nicholas received GH¢30,000.00 and GH¢60,000.00 respectively in their Access bank and Fidelity bank accounts and Nana Kwesi got GH¢90,000.00 in his Cal Bank account.

Benjamin had GH¢60,000.00 in his Ecobank account, Daniel received GH¢30,000.00 in his Fidelity account, Boadu, GH¢30,000.00 his GT bank account, and Joseph, GH¢60,000.00 in his FNB account.All of the transfers were done in tranches of GH¢30,000.00 on different dates within the said period.

On May 9, 2023 from 7:21am to 7:32am, he used another colleague and that of the branch Manageress, Felicia Mackenzie’s Users IDs to change and authorise the contact numbers of eleven customers’ accounts, including the account of late Justice Anthony Kofi Abada, former IGP, late Mr. Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong, Rev Theodora Baaba Hackman, Esther Marian Hackman and replaced them with only one contact number, 0531668674.

On May 11, 2023, Al transferred GH¢50,000.00 from Esther Marian Hackman’s account to Absa account of Ernest Aryee and did the same on the next day, by transferring GH¢50,000.00 each from late Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong and Rev Theodora Baaba Hackman’s accounts to some other Absa account holders.

The receivers of the transfers were Ernest, Othniel and Isaac.

The court was told that Cecil, Richard, Michael and Fouad stated in their respective investigation cautioned statements that Clinton came to their shops to purchase Iphone 14 Pro Max and requested for their bank accounts details and forwarded the same to Al to effect those fraudulent transfers into their accounts.

On May 12, 2023 Al was arrested by the Police in respect of the Visa Card theft and was granted Police enquiry bail to be reporting.

On May 15, 2023, the complainant on behalf of the bank petitioned the Director General of CID in respect of GH¢1,207,017.00 theft detected in furtherance to the Visa Card case.

Interestingly, when Al was contacted to report himself to police, he refused to show up, meanwhile, effort to compel his surety to produce him also failed.

On June 4, 2023, A1 together with his girlfriend Ivy Okertchiri, who stood as surety for him attempted to escape from the jurisdiction to Dubai, but he was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport by the Ghana Immigration Service and handed over to the police.C/Insp.

Anquandah stated that investigation revealed that Al, together with his accomplices, within the period of April and May 2023, stole a total amount of GH¢1,209,304.69 from the aforementioned customers’ accounts.