Estate developer sues Access Bank for negligence

The Nigerian flagged Access Bank is facing a legal challenge over a bank account opened with stolen identity that served as a conduit for defrauding customers of an estate developer.

One Stanley Koranteng, a director of Diamond Estates, allegedly used the passport number G088021 which belonged to one Lois Adabla but maintained his picture as he secretly opened the company account at the Lapaz branch of the bank in August 2016.

“I did not know what was going on until I received information from a criminal trial at the Amansaman District Court involving Stanley having defrauded customers who had paid various sums of money into the account,” Mr Emmanuel Don Agbanyo, owner of Diamond Estates, told the.Ghana News Agency.

Among the claims that Mr Agbanyo is making to back his one Million Cedi demand as damages, is “a declaration that the defendant(Access bank) owed him a duty of care in bank customer relationship.”

That the bank breached its duty of care to him when it failed to comply with its request  for documentation in respect of the account standing in the name of the company.

Prior to making the claims, he contended among others, that the bank failed to do due diligence in the verification of the Company and had plunged it into huge debts as a result.

According to Mr Agbanyo, he had  appealed to the Bank of Ghana to strictly monitor the operations of the bank and other financial institutions which violated their ethics due to poor supervision, poor background checks on employees and contempt for the Ghanaian banking public.

The Corporate Communications department of the bank when contacted, said their legal department was aware of the suit and would respond appropriately.

Source: GNA