Four on bail over GHC2,100,000 attempted bank fraud

An Accra Circuit Court has granted GHC6 million bail with three sureties to Stephen Arthur over an alleged attempt to defraud Fidelity Bank Limited of GHC2,100,000 belonging to customers.

One of the sureties, the court ordered, should be justified with landed property.

Three of his accomplices: Nicholas Gyekye, Ahmed Ansah and Daniel Kodzi, were granted GHC5 million bail each with three sureties to be justified with landed property.

They have denied conspiring to defraud and steal the amount.

In addition, Arthur, Ansah, Gyekye and Kodzi are facing the charge of participating in an organised criminal group, which they have also denied.

They will make their next appearance in a month’s time.

Prosecuting, Mr Leo Anthony Siamah told the Court presided over by Mrs Ellen Offei Ayeh that on January 24, 2022, the EOCO Office received intelligence from a staff of Fidelity Bank that some persons were asking him for customer details to perpetrate fraud.

He said the informant was instructed by the Fidelity Bank management to liaising with the guys to understand what they wanted and intended to do.

The Prosecution said Gyekye was contacted by Arthur requesting help to get a Fidelity Bank staff who can provide bank account details in order to withdraw funds from the account.

It said the next day the bank staff was contacted by Gyekye on WhatsApp and phone call where Gyekye asked the staff to get him phone numbers and bank account details of customers with huge monies.

The prosecution said the bank staff met Arth and Gyekye at the Accra Mall on March 17, 2022, to discuss the modus operandi where Gyekye mentioned that he had contact persons in MTN who could assist to clone any phone number that the informant brought to him.

It said Gyekye also mentioned that his friend, one Destiny, had a girlfriend who had been cloning sim cards for another syndicate involved in the same fraud scheme.

The Court heard that Arthur and Gyekye agreed with the bank staff that he would provide three phone numbers with huge funds in their bank account.

The prosecution said on March 28, 2022, the informant gave the accused persons three phone numbers 059966257,0256586172,0551107747 belonging to Ransford Nana Addo, Ama Ofosu-Kusi Addo and Jessica Eshun Ababio respectively to clone.

It said Ansah gave the phone numbers to Kodzi to clone, thus Arthur, Gyekye, Ansah and Kodzi intended to steal GH¢ 850,000, GH¢ 680,000, GHC 570,000 respectively from the accounts.

The prosecution said on Thursday, March 31, 2022, Gyekye sent the informant a WhatsApp message that they had been able to clone the sim cards through the help of Ansah and Kodzi.

He said Arthur and Gyekye agreed to meet the staff on April 4, 2022, to set up a mobile application with the clone sim cards to withdraw the monies.

The prosecution said while setting up at the Achimota Mall, the gang was arrested by the Economic and Organised Crime Officers.