Former bank worker cleared of fraud charge

A FORMER employee of Bank of South Pacific (BSP) was cleared of conspiracy to defraud the bank of about K89,000 because of insufficient evidence.
Edward Tabua, 23, of Parama village, Western, was alleged to have committed the offence between Nov 30 and Dec 24 last year while employed at BSP Boroko branch.
Others involved in the scam included co-workers named as Rex Kulu, Fedora Sivi and Keith Eric.
Presiding magistrate Fred Tomo in his ruling last Wednesday dismissed the charge because there was not enough evidence to commit the accused to stand trial at the National Court.
 “You are an employee of BSP. At the relevant period, you did transactions at the request of one of the tellers, which totalled K8,000.
The transfers were done in series of K1,000 and that was usually done after the public areas closed.
“You would send the money to another account at the request of co-worker Rex Kulu.
 “You did not know what the co-worker did with the money withdrawn, including those you processed amounting to K29,000 and not K89,000 as stated in the police information.
 “The main issue to decide is whether there is sufficient evidence to show that you did conspire with Rex Kulu and others to defraud BSP. Evidence does show that you did process K8,000 at the request of the co-worker, and you admit you were given K50.
“This is irregular; it is a bad practice to process transactions after hours,” Tomo told Tabua.
Tomo noted that the accused did not agree to defraud BSP, even if he was involved in the scam because he was used by his co-workers to pursue an improper motive.