ATM guard jailed for stealing customers’ money

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Mangochi first grade court has sentenced a 31 year-old ATM guard at Opportunity Bank of Malawi (OBM) in the district to six years in prison for stealing customers’ money.

The guard, identified as KomaniNewa, took advantage of the trust the customers had in him to steal their ATM cards and withdraw money amounting to K330,000 from their accounts.

Prosecutor EffordKamphonje told court that in the month of July, Justin Bamusi and Belita William who are local farmers complained to Mangochi OBM branch that their money, K63,000 and K267,000, was missing in their accounts.

cuffsGloria Chumachao who is operations supervisor at OBM Mangochi made some follow ups and in the process she discovered that one day the two customers used the guard’s help to collect as well as well check their balances.

“But instead of only assisting them, the convict, swapped the victim’s ATM cards with expired ones belonging to other customers,”Kamphonje told the court.

The guard later used the ATM cards to withdraw money from the victim’s accounts as he knew their pin codes.

The suspect pleaded not guilty to the offence although bank cameras showed him doing the evil act. This forced the state to parade four witnesses.

Following the evidence the first grade magistrate Ronald M’bwana found the guard guilty of the offence of theft.

He then sentenced the guard to six years in prison saying the convict’s duty was to render assistance to customers and not stealing from them.

The convict hails from Newa village, Traditional Authority Chulu in Kasungu District.