Man accused of misusing funds

A 40-YEAR-OLD man is to stand trial in the Waigani National Court for misappropriating more than K140,000 intended for payment for mining materials.
Sherman Beangke, from Fagame village, Henganofi in Eastern Highlands, allegedly misused K142,670 which was intended as payment for services provided by his company Absolute Workwear Ltd.
Waigani Committal Court Magistrate Tracy Ganaii said although Beangke was willing to repay the money, the alleged offence had already taken place.
“If you take something, put it to other use or to steal, the intention to pay back or return does not matter,” she said.
“Once the offence is committed, then it’s committed.
“The court finds that the ruling on sufficiency is intact.
“There’s sufficient prima facie evidence, as admission to start with, and there’s sufficient evidence on the elements of the charge of misappropriation.”
It was alleged that between April 29 and June 5, 2019, K92 Mining Ltd made two payments, a first payment of K45,650 and the second of K97,020 into the account of the Absolute Workwear Ltd as payments for supplying mining materials.
It was alleged that after the payments, emails were sent to Beangke regarding the supplying of the mining materials but he failed to respond for four to five months.
A complaint was lodged by the general mine manager of the K92 Mining Ltd on behalf of the company. After investigations, police alleged that money kept in the company account of Absolute Workwear was withdrawn through Eftpos and ATM machines for Beangke’s personal use.