LAGOS – A 22-year-old banker employed by Skye Bank Plc., Gbemisola Owoeye, was on Monday charged with stealing N2.9 million belonging to the bank at a Tinubu Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.
Owoeye of No. 2, Ayo Idowu Close, Surulere, Lagos State, is facing a charge of stealing.
He, however, denied the charge.
The prosecutor, SP Chidi Okoye, told the court that Owoeye committed the offence between August and September at the head office of Skye Bank Plc., located at No. 3, Akin Adeola St., Victoria Island, Lagos.
Okoye said the banker fraudulently exploited the bank’s inter-currency funds’ transfer capability through the use of the Automated Teller Machine (ATM).
The prosecutor said that the bank discovered that various sums of money were illegally transferred into the domiciliary( foreign) accounts of two customers of the bank: Otun Kehinde and Olamilekan Alabi.
He said that Owoeye was caught in the act of ’round tripping, which is the practice of consistently moving funds from his naira account in the bank using the ATM, into other customers’ domiciliary accounts in the same bank.
Okoye said the banker would then withdraw the dollars from those accounts and sell them at a premium rate at the `black’ market.
The prosecutor said the offence contravened Section 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 285 recommends three years’ imprisonment for anyone convicted of stealing.
The chief magistrate, Mrs A.O. Awogboro, granted the banker bail in the sum of N250,000 with two sureties in like sum and she adjourned the case to Jan. 27, 2015 for mention. (NAN)
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