One of the suspects
Two alleged members of a gang which hacked into the system of a bank and transferred huge sums of money from its coffers have been arrested.
The suspects, who claim to be businessmen, are George Asante, 37, and Millicent Brown, 32.One of their accomplices, whose name was given by the police as Dickson, is currently on the run.
Illegal transactions
Briefing the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Adabraka District Police Commander, Chief Superintendent of Police Mr Kwesi Ofori, said for the past two months the bank (name withheld) noticed some illegal transactions in its operations.
He said further investigations revealed that some unscrupulous people had been stealing money from its coffers and the personal accounts of some customers. The modus operandi of the gang included the transfer of the money into a customer’s account, which they later connived with the account holder to withdraw.
The commander said after receiving a series of complaints from aggrieved customers, the bank decided to set up a committee to uncover the perpetrators.
It subsequently placed an alert on all transactions on its premises.
Arrest
Mr Ofori said on October 5, 2016, officials of the bank detected that GH¢500,000 had been transferred from its coffers into the business account of one of the customers of the bank.The account number: 1010104082501, which was in the name of a company known as Premium IT Limited, was then closely monitored.
He said all branches of the bank were subsequently alerted to cause the arrest of any person who attempted to withdraw money from the said account.About 9:40 a.m. on the same day, Asante is said to have walked into the Ring Road Central branch of the bank and presented a cheque for GH¢450,000.
The head of security of the bank was called in to effect Asante’s arrest, after which he was handed over to the Adabraka Police.In the course of investigations, Asante mentioned Millicent and Dickson as his accomplices, and later led the police to arrest Millicent.
Mr Ofori said the two had since been charged with two counts of conspiracy to steal. They are being prepared for prosecution, while efforts are being made to arrest Dickson.