College in court to recoup stolen K274,500

THE Goroka Technical College is fighting in the Goroka District Court to recoup K274,500 that was fraudulently withdrawn from its Bank of South Pacific (BSP) operational account.
Goroka police fraud investigators confirmed with BSP and arrested Stely Ubimo, 55, of Henagaru village in Okapa, Eastern Highlands, for allegedly conspiring with an accomplice only identified as Matus from Henganofi, for stealing the money between July and early August through withdrawals in Port Moresby.
Senior Goroka District Court Magistrate Gerard Vetunawa adjourned the case to Sept 29 for a hearing after a brief mention last Friday.
The college’s senior management attended the court for mention but did not make any comments and reserved their statement until after the court’s final decision.
It was confirmed that Ubimo is the director of Kinnie Building and Construction company based in Morata in Port Moresby.
Police investigations revealed that Ubimo and his accomplice Matus, was also a contractor in Port Moresby.
Matus asked Ubimo for an invoice using his company letter head written to Telikom PNG for K3,000.
Matus having access to a used Goroka Technical College cheque book drew a cheque for K495 to the Brian Bell Homecentre in Goroka dated July 29. Matus then erased the details (Brian Bell Home Centre Goroka, date and amount) on the cheque and made the cheque payable to the Ubimo’s company Kinnie Building and Constructions for K274,500.
Matus then took the cheque to BSP Boroko branch and deposited the amount into Ubimo’s company account and it was cleared after three days.
The Matus then took Ubimo to BSP SME centre at Water Front, downtown in Port Moresby, where he withdrew K100,000.
Matus gave K10,000 to Ubimo as his commission.
Ubimo then did other withdrawals and gave the money to Matus at different times, he even gave his bank card to Matus where he did several withdrawals until the K274,500 was depleted.
According to court information, Goroka Technical College accounts section after realising the missing money from the account, raised it with BSP and the bank confirmed the withdrawal from Port Moresby.
A formal complaint was laid with police fraud investigators who investigated and uncovered the fraudulent activity.
They traced the record of the company (Kinnie Building and Construction) to Ubimo.
He was arrested and charged under section 407 (1) of PNG Criminal Code Act Chapter 262.