ECOBANK staff jailed for stealing customers deposit

• Prince Sam Essuman has been jailed for twelve years

• He stole from customers deposit

• He was found guilty of nine counts

Prince Sam Essuman, a staff of ECOBANK has been sentenced to twelve years for stealing funds from the bank’s depositors.

The Tema Circuit Court ‘B’ found Essuman guilty of nine counts.

According to the prosecutor, DSP Asamani, Essuman suppressed monies that belonged to SIC Ltd as well as other customers of the bank.

He received monies and deposit slips from the affected customers, stamp the deposit slips and return a copy to the customers.

Essuman, after giving back the deposit slips to the customers fails to credit the bank accounts of the customers. He further destroys the bank’s copy of the deposit slip thereby preventing the bank from knowing that any money had been deposited.

In a mynewsgh report sighted by GhanaWeb, the customers reconciled their accounts with the bank and noted that their accounts had not been credited.

The court presided over by Her Lordship, Bertha Anin-Agyei said, the Bank of Ghana fraud report indicates that there is an increase in bank fraud and most of the time, it is the staff of banks who are the culprits or who aid others to commit such crimes.

The report quotes the judge as saying, “the courts must hand down a deterrent sentence in order to deter other bankers from engaging in such crimes and also maintain public confidence in the banking sector since banks are essential for the G.D.P growth of a country.”