Ghana: 2 Bank Agents Granted Bail Over Attempt to Steal Gh¢2.1 Million

Two agents of the Fidelity Bank at AssinFosu, accused of attempting to steal GH¢2.1m in Subscriber Identity Module(SIM) card cloning fraud, have been granted bail by an Accra Circuit Court.

They were admitted to GH¢150,000 bail each with three sureties to be justified by the court presided over by Ms AdelaideAbui-Keddey.

They were instructed to report to Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) once every two weeks on Wednesday, when the case was called yesterday.

The two, who are in the grips of the EOCO were charged with participating in an organised crime, and pleaded not guilty. Another accused, Ebenezer Otoo, is on the run.

In his bail application, counsel for accused, Justice Oteng, argued that his clients were innocent until proven guilty, had a fixed place of abode and were ready to avail themselves to the court whenever it was required for the case to proceed.

Prosecution led by Stephen Motey, who held brief for Anthony Siamah, however, prayed to the court to decline bail for accused to assist with investigations.

After considering both arguments, the presiding judge granted accused bail and fixed the next hearing on October 3, 2022.

According to the facts presented by prosecution, on August 4, 2022, EOCO received intelligence from the Fidelity Bank at AssinFosu about activities of a syndicate in the town.

This was after the syndicate had contacted Dominic Asante, a Fidelity Bank staff, to provide details of customers, to enable them withdraw funds from their accounts by cloning the customers SIM cards.

The initial intelligence led to the arrest of six accomplices.

Further investigations led to the discovery of another syndicate, effectively running the alleged SIM card cloning fraud, involving Obeng, Ofosu and Otoo.

According to prosecution, the crime officer confirmed that the three accused were agents of the bank.

They also received confirmation about complaints of customers’ account details that were leaked to fraudsters to gain access.

Prosecution said that on August 25, a combined team from the EOCO and the police arrested the two accused at AssinFosuwhile the other accomplice were at large.

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