Man slapped additional bail penalty

A COURT in Lae has added K2,000 to a court bail for a 34-year-old man charged with two counts of conspiracy and stealing on Wednesday.
Lae Committal Court Magistrate Pious Tapil told Kosam Wevisa, from Ofafina village in Okapa, Eastern Highlands to pay the additional court bail by Tuesday 14 after reading him his charges.
Magistrate Tapil told Wevisa that the previous bail amount of K1,000 was not enough compared to the amount of money stolen.
The court heard that Wevisa conspired with the administration officer of Sai Business Group, Raymond Aaron, to defraud the board of management of the company.
The court further heard that Wevisa was employed by Bank South Pacific as a teller when he conspired with Aaron to steal K576,000 from Sai Business Group from the company’s account at the BSP bank.
A police brief stated that Aaron used to do banking for the company at the bank where Mevisa was the teller who often served him.
The brief said Aaron knowingly induced and convinced three members of the board, namely Akai Kapis (treasurer), Ken Simon (deputy chairman) and Max Sam (director) to sign eight bank cheques with a promise that they each would have a share.
The court noted that the alleged cheques were presented to Wevisa but they were not cleared following proper procedures where the primary signatory (the chairman of the company, Menos Ackrish) did not sign. The police said the offence occurred from Nov 2021 to March.