A former Barclays Bank employee, Joshua Akpaloo, who has been arraigned before court for defrauding Barclays Bank has been granted bail.
An Accra Circuit Court has admitted the Accused to bail in the sum of GHC 2,000,000 with three sureties of which two should be public servants.
This was after the Accused, through his Counsel, prayed the Court to review his initial bail terms of GHC 9,000,000.00 with one surety to be justified.
The facts of the case are that the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) received a complaint from Barclays Bank Ghana Limited, that the Accused, had fraudulently appropriated funds belonging to the Bank in the sum of GHC 8,400,000.00.
Investigations revealed that one Gabriel Borquaye Aplerh and one Florence Dorothy Amartey who are allegedly the brother- in- law and mother of the Accused, provided their bank accounts as aids and facilitated the Accused to disguise the source and appropriate the funds into their bank accounts, in favour of the Accused person.
Investigations also revealed that an audit conducted into the expenditure of the Retail Banking Unit of the Bank in July 2015, showed that for the period of August 2010 to July 2015, the Accused dishonestly appropriated the said funds, disguised the source of the funds by transferring same under forged internal debut and credit vouchers from the Bank’s internal Retail Telephone and Telex accounts, to the Barclays account of his alleged brother- in- law’s business name, Gabbyborg Enterprise, under various false representations.
The Accused person later transferred the said funds from the Gabbyborg Enterprise account, into his alleged mother’s account at the Assin Fosu branch of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).
The ADB account has been frozen on orders of the High Court pending trial.
The Accused later transferred the funds into his bank accounts at Fidelity Bank, Accra.
Investigations revealed that the accounts of the Accused and his alleged mother and brother-in-law, were being used to disguise the source of the funds.
The case has been adjourned to 24th October, 2018.
Source: GhanaJustice/F.Kyeremating
