28th January, 2011
Detectives at the Special Fraud Unit, SFU, have arrested banker of a new generation bank in Lagos, Olaiya Olusegun, for alleged fraud.
The police alleged that the suspect, an account officer, specialises in defrauding customers through fraudulent withdrawals from their accounts.
He was caught during a verification exercise following complaints from some victims to the management of the bank that they could not find the money saved in their accounts.
The bank management moved swiftly and traced the fraud to the account officer.
The bank discovered that Olusegun fraudulently withdrew N33 million from the account of one their customers (name withheld).
Investigation by the bank also revealed that the suspect forged the signature of the victim on cheques and cash same without the consent of the man.
Problem started when the complainant who had over N30m in his account sent someone to collect N500,000 from it but the bank rejected the cheque, saying there was insufficient fund in it.
In the course of investigation, it was also discovered that the suspect tampered with another account belonging to one Adekunle, a deceased customer of the bank.
He was said to have applied for and collected a cheque booklet on behalf of the deceased customer, forged the man’s signature and withdrew N7 million to open a fixed deposit account for the widow which he converted to his own use.
His employer reported the matter to the SFU and he was arrested and charged to court after investigation.
Commissioner of Police in charge of SFU, Chiwike Asadu, advised bank customers to always monitor their accounts and not to entrust them to bank account officers to avoid being swindled.