Court begins trial of trader who allegedly cloned cheques to steal over GH¢81,000
An Accra Circuit Court will on October 11, 2023, start trial of Jessica Oforiwaa, a trader who allegedly aided six accomplices now at large, to clone GCB Bank Cheques to steal GH¢81,060 from some customers’ accounts.
Police say, Oforiwaa allegedly committed the offence with Dawda Sawdido Mohammed Muktar, Fuseini Saeed Ibrahim, Felix Mensah, Lawrence Quarshie and Philip Ansah, all at large.
Oforiwaa is being held on 15 counts of abetment of crime to wit stealing and stealing.
She has pleaded not guilty, and she is currently on GH¢100,000 bail with two sureties by the court presided over by Mr Isaac Addo.
Prosecution led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Seth Frimpong said the complainant Daniel Boakye was a Security Co-coordinator at the GCB Bank Ghana Limited High Street, Accra.
ASP Frimpong said the accused person Jessica Oforiwas was a Caterer/ Hairdresser, residing at Kasoa.
Prosecution said last year, the complainant’s Bank detected that some people had cloned about eight (8) cheques of customers of GCB Bank and succeeded in withdrawing a total of GH¢81.060 from some customers’ accounts.
According to the prosecution, the affected customers are Rejoice Emekor Senezah, with account Number… (withheld) held at Kantamanto Branch had an amount of GH¢12.000 withdrawn from her account on January 10,2022 whiles Felcon Electrical Enterprise with Account Number (withheld) had amount of GH¢47,460 withdrawn from their account on April 13, 2022.
Prosecution said the complainant submitted the said cloned cheques to Camelot Company Limited, the producers of the cheques for investigations.
The Prosecutor said Camelot detected that all the cheques issued were from the cheque book issued by the Bank to Oforiwaa with account name Jessica Cook Company.
Prosecution said Oforiwaa and her accomplices chemically erased the account name, number and signature of the customers which was not detected by the Bank since the leaflet is genuine.
Investigations revealed that Dawda Sawdido withdrew an amount of GH¢4,700, Mohammed Mukta withdrew an amount of GH¢4,900 and GH¢4,800 respectively on two cheques on January 10, 2022.
Prosecution said Fuseini Saeed Ibrahim withdrew GH¢5,000 on January 10, 2022, and Felix Mensah withdrew GH¢47,460 on April 13, 2022.
According to the prosecutor, Lawrence Quarshie withdrew an amount of GH¢5,000 and GH¢4.700 from Tantra Hill and Achimota branches respectively on April 13, 2022.
Prosecution said Philip Ansah withdrew GH¢4, 700 on August 1, 2022, through Livingston Ankomah, now a convicted prisoner at Nsawam.
The prosecutor held that in all, the total sum of GH¢81, 060 was withdrawn by Oforiwaa and her accomplices.
The court heard that on August 1, 2022, Philip Ansah and Livingston Ankomah (now a convict) went to the Kaneshie Branch of GCB Bank with a cheque No. 540442 with a face value of GH¢4,700 and made withdrawal of the said amount from account Number (withheld) belonging to one Dawlah Lawrence.
Prosecution said the same day they proceeded to Kwame Nkrumah circle branch of the Bank and presented a cheque No. 540440 with a face value of GH¢3, 000 to be withdrawn from the same account.
Prosecution said this raised the suspicion, leading to the arrest of Livingston Ankomah, who was prosecuted, convicted and jailed.
According to the prosecution, Ankomah said the cheques were given to him one Philip Ansah and that both went to the Bank at Kaneshie to cash the sum of GH¢4,700.
They (Ankomah and Ansah) went to Circle branch and presented another cheque of GH¢3,000 at the Kaneshie branch and money was handed over to Ansah.
Ankomah however could not lead the Police to arrest the said Ansah.
Prosecution said when Ankomah was arraigned, he was convicted and jailed on December 8, 2022.
On December 24, 2022, Prosecution said the Police had information from the complainant that, Oforiwaa had been arrested by the Kwahu Nkwatia Police and in her investigation caution statement, denied knowledge of the crime but accepted the fact that Jesnat Cook cheques which were used to dishonestly appropriate a total of GH¢81,060.00 from the Bank accounts stated, belonged to her.
Prosecution said Oforiwaa told the Police that she suspected her boyfriend by name Samuel Gyane Nyanteh might have used her cheques because he was the only one staying with her at Kasoa.
The prosecutor said the police made several efforts to get the said boyfriend to assist in investigation but he failed to report at the police station and his whereabouts was not yet known.
Prosecution said efforts were being made to arrest the said boyfriend and Oforiwaa told the Police that the said cheque book was at Kasoa.
On December 28, 2022, when the Police led Oforiwaa to her room in Kasoa, she failed to open the door, saying she had left the key to her room in Kwahu Nkwatia.
According to the prosecution, on December 29, 2022, another team of police officers took the accused back to her house and conducted a search, but they could not find the said cheque book.
Source: GNA