Dizengoff loses GH¢94,000 to fraudsters

Five persons who allegedly stole an amount of GH¢93,450.10 from the account of Dizengoff Ghana Limited have been hauled before an Accra circuit court to face the law.

The accused persons are Sylvester Anno Barnieh aka Sly, Mustapha Larrison aka Payless, Issaka Adamu aka Jula, Ben Sallah aka Alex Acheampong and Godwin Ocloo aka George Ocloo or Yaw Boakye.

Three of the accused persons - Sly, Payless and Jula - were charged with conspiracy to commit crime and stealing while the rest were charged with attempt to commit crime.

Meanwhile Sylvester and Ben Sallah were further charged with forgery of document.

Sylvester was said to have forged the signature of Mr. Nkansah Adade, the chief accountant of the company, to withdraw the money from the Ghana Commercial Bank while Ben was also said to have forged a Ghanaian passport number belonging to one Alex Acheampong by removing the picture and replacing it with his picture.

The accused persons were refused bail by Justice Ivy Heward-Mills to re-appear on May 28, 2009.

The prosecutor, ASP George Abavelim, told the court that the complainant is Mr. Nkansah Adade, the chief accountant of the company, and that on January 23, 2009, he had a call from GCB concerning a cheque for GH¢81, 450, 20 for clearance and payment to Central Engineering Services account at UniBank Osu Branch.

When the complainant observed that no cheque for such an amount had been issued, he asked the bank not to honour the cheque.

This consequently prompted the complainant to check the company's statement of account online and to his surprise, a payment of GH¢93,450.10 had made from the company's account on January 14, 2009.

According to the prosecutor, the complainant proceeded to the bank and when a check was conducted, it came to light that the said amount was paid into an account named Payless Wear Source at the Ring Road branch of International Commercial Bank.

A further check also revealed that a whole cheque booklet had been stolen from Dizengoff Ghana Limited.

The complainant then reported the case to the police, leading to the arrest of Mustapha, the operator of the said account at the International Bank and he also mentioned the name of Sylvester and Issaka as those who requested for the details of his account to transfer some money into it. The two were arrested based on the information received.

On January 27, 2009 Ben was also arrested when he presented a cheque signed by Godwin Ocloo to UniBank at Osu.

The prosecutor said when Ben was arrested, he was in possession of Ghanaian Passport No.H1337593 bearing the name of one Alex Acheampong but with his picture, to indicate that he is Alex Acheampong.

Further investigations by the police also allegedly revealed that Sylvester Anno Barnieh, Mustapha Larrison and Issaka Adamu have shared the GH¢93,450.10 among themselves.

By Mary Anane