Crime Brothers granted GH¢400,000.00 bail each over bank theft

An Accra Circuit Court has granted a GH¢400,000.00 bail with two sureties each to two brothers over an alleged GHS476,450.00 bank theft.

The Court ordered that the two sureties should be justified with landed property.

Kwadwo Berko Antwi and Kwabena Appiah Mensah Antwi have, however, denied conspiring to steal the money from a customer’s commercial bank account.

They are to make their next appearance on May 25, 2022.

Police Inspector Jonas Laweh told the Court that Mr Frank Abdulai Iddrisu is the complainant and a Financial Investigator with the Bank, whilst Kwadwo Berko Antwi, was a banker and Kwabena Appiah Mensah Antwi, a graphics designer. They live in North Legon.

He said Kwadwo, a relationship officer at the Bank’s Ridge Branch Accra, was appointed to manage three accounts – a customer of the Bank.

The Prosecution said on March 10, 2022, the customer reported to the Bank that a total of GH¢476,450.00 and US$1,200 had been withdrawn from her accounts without her consent.

A review of the customer’s accounts showed that between the period May 7, 2020, and March 19, 2021, Kwadwo created a Mobile App of the Bank and a funds transfer form with a forged signature of the customer and then transferred a total of amount of GH¢435,400.00 from her account into another account with the name Ankusa Media, belonging Antwi Kwabena Appiah Mensah.

Inspector Lawer said that Kwadwo also transferred GH₵24,000 into another account with Kwabena Appiah Mensah’s name and on March 3, 2021, Kwadwo again transferred GH¢7,050.00 to a different account name, William Osei, now a witness in this case.

He said that on May 25, 2021, Kwadwo also transferred from the customer’s US dollar account a total amount of US$1,200 into an account that belonged to Kwabena.

The Prosecution stated that a formal complaint was lodged with the Police, leading to the arrest of the accused persons. The Police later discovered that Kwabena and Kwadwo were brothers.

He said Kwadwo operated two accounts at the Bank with Kwabena as the sole signatory to the accounts.

Kwabena withdrew monies paid into the two mentioned accounts and repaid it into Kwadwo’s personal account or sometimes paid the monies into his Momo account.

This, the Prosecution said, was to cover up Kwadwo’s underhand dealings as a staff of the bank.

During the investigation, the Police found out that Kwadwo used the monies he stole to pay off his personal debt, bought two iPhones for himself and his wife and then used the rest of the amount to complete his house at Agbogba, the Court heard.

The Prosecution said on March 3 and 22, 2022, the accused persons refunded a total of GH₵180,000 to the Police, which had been kept as an exhibit