Guilty plea to K50,000 conspiracy

A SENIOR Bank South Pacific employee, who has been charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud another person, pleaded guilty to the charge yesterday at the Waigani National Court.
Stephanie Manafat of East Sepik province, was charged with the offence while working as a customer service officer with the BSP Waigani branch where she allegedly conspired with a person claiming
to be a genuine client and assisted the person to perform an illegal transaction.
Police alleged that between June 12 and Oct 26, 2007, Manafat conspired with the impersonator who pose as one Gabriel Korowa and issued him 42 withdrawal slips which the person used and withdrew a total of K50,900 from Korowa’s account.
It was alleged that Manafat signed and pre-signed the withdrawal slips before advising the bank tellers to process the payments.
When tellers asked for the client’s bank card,Manafat told them that the bank card was with the client’s wife in Vanimo and was not with the client.
She also claimed that the client  was an uncle.
The court was told that the tellers trusted Manafat as a senior staff and proceeded with the transactions.
However, Manafat was later caught when the account bearer complained to the bank that someone else was withdrawing substantial amounts of money from his savings account. 
In court yesterday, Manafat admitted to the offence and told the court she was sorry for her actions.
State lawyers submitted that Manafat did not use any of the money withdrawn by the unknown person but did conspire with the person and conducted the transaction.
Manafat’s lawyer sought an adjournment to give him time to look through the summary statements and previous committal court documents before further hearing could proceed.