Absa Bank drags former employee to court over GH¢4.9m fraud

Absa Bank has filed a civil action against a former employee in the Commercial Division of the Accra High Court, seeking to recover GH¢4.9 million allegedly obtained through fraud.

This was reported by Daily Graphic dated June 30, 2023.

According to the report, the suspect whose name is given as Joshua Akpaloo allegedly diverted the amount between 2011 and 2015 under the guise of payment for telephone bills while he worked for the bank then Barclays Bank.

The case suit was first filed in 2018 by the then-Barclays Bank and was later amended in 2021 with Absa Bank as the new plaintiff when the latter took over the former’s operations.

Aside from the money, the bank is also seeking interest on the GH4.9m at the current rate, beginning on July 23, 2015, when the defendant was fired by the bank.

In his defence, the defendant Akpaloo stated that he was not responsible for any loss to the bank and that he was a loyal employee who never committed any fraud.

He denied any wrongdoing and urged the court to dismiss the suit, claiming that the bank’s case was without merit.

Apart from stating that the bank not having a solid case against him, the defendant also stated that he was discharged in criminal proceedings relating to the same case on two occasions (May 30, 2017, and February 17, 2020) by the Accra Circuit court for lack of prosecution.

According to the suit, Akpaloo began working for Barclays on November 26, 2003, as an Operation Clerk and was later promoted to Clearing Officer in 2008.

Absa claims in its statement of claim that on July 3, 2015, the bank’s Finance Department reviewed its profit and loss cost lines and discovered that the telephone cost line and others were extremely high.

It also stated that it discovered the anomaly in the bank’s Head Office Retail Banking Unit Telephone and Telex Account, with further investigation revealing two entries of Ghc 77,000 and Ghc 53,000, with no bills attached.

The bank added that the investigation on July 8, 2015, led to the payment team with Akpaloo’s name coming up.

“The plaintiff states that when the defendant [Akploo] was confronted with the issue, he promised to provide an explanation the following day but from that day the defendant vacated his post,” the statement of the case said.

Per the bank, the incident has been reported to the Africa Forensic Investigation and Whistleblowing team for further investigation.

“The investigation revealed that the defendant used duplicated customer telephone bills to raise vouchers to debit the Head Office RBU telephone and telex accounts and credited any of the following office accounts; Bank of Ghana (BoG) Cash account, E-Box inward BoG transfers and integrator-Voucher Processing Centre (VPC).

The defendant then debited the BoG account to credit the customer Gabbyborg Enterprise account with Barclays Bank Ghana Limited. Funds credited to the Gabbyborg Enterprise account were later transferred to Florence Dorothy Amartey’s (mother of the defendant) account at the Agriculture Development Bank via inward clearing. According to the statement of claim, she then transferred the funds to the defendant’s Fidelity Bank account.

In his defence, Mr Akpaloo stated that his job at the bank at the time entailed checking invoices generated by the front desk from Vodafone phone bills of employees.

“I am not responsible for the loss the plaintiff has suffered as there are enough checks and balances in the system in place at the plaintiff’s bank to either forestall such massive loss or prevent it altogether,” Mr Akpaloo contended.

The defendant also denied resigning when confronted with the investigations, claiming that he was suffering from a medical condition at the time, prompting him to seek medical attention.

“The defendant contends that the claimant’s case lacked merit and humbly prays the court to dismiss all the claims.” the defendant added.