Court jails man for misappropriating K1mil

A FORMER ANZ bank officer has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment with hard labour for misappropriating more than K1 million.
Waigani National Court Judge Teresa Berrigan sentenced Koani Lohia, 34, from Porebada village, NCD, for three counts of misappropriating funds totalling K1,019,468.90 and three counts of money laundering yesterday. Justice Berrigan said that the offence was committed prior to the new amendments (2015) to the PNG Criminal code Act in which Lohia could have got up to 50 years imprisonment.
“Given the time period in which the offence was committed, the new amendment to the Criminal Code Act will not apply to you,” Berrigan said.
“The money misappropriated was quite large and if you were to face the penalty of the new amendments, you would face up to 50 years in prison.”
She considered the mitigating factors when applying sentence which included Lohia being a first time offender, entering an early guilty plea, cooperating with police and his then employer (ANZ) and expressing remorse for his crime.