Nurse to stand trial over loans

The National National

By CHARLES MOI
A MALE nurse in Gulf who allegedly used the identity of another nurse to obtain K20,200 in loans from finance companies will stand trial in the National Court.
Waigani Committal Court Magistrate Paul Nii in committing Tobias Kondupo, 28, of Bela village, Mendi, Southern Highlands, to stand trial, said police had provided sufficient evidence in the case.
“On Oct 5 when I took submission on sufficiency of evidence, the defendant (Kondupo) stood from the defendant’s dock and told the court that he was responsible for his actions,” Magistrate Nii said in his ruling on Thursday.
Magistrate Nii said the accused admitted his guilt during the hearing and asked for leniency, but, was told that the court did not have powers to test evidence by conducting trial which could only be done in the National Court.
He said the defendant could tell the trial court the reason for the crime.
However, when exercising his powers under Section 95 of the District Court, he found that statements from officers of financial institutions corroborated the charges against the defendant.
“The bank statement obtained from BSP shows last March 13, an amount of K2,000 was paid into the defendant’s account by J Mali Finance,” Magistrate Nii said.
“Last March 3, the defendant obtained a loan of K3,200 from Cannon Finance Ltd.
“Last March 4, defendant was approved a loan of K15,000 by Moni Plus, which was subsequently credited into the defendant’s account with BSP.”
Kondupo will stand trial in the National Court on six charges of conspiracy to defraud, six counts of fraudulent utterance and eight counts of false pretence.
According to the brief facts, Kondupo and Nick Roy, the victim and complainant in the matter, were both nurses with the Gulf health authority at the time of offence.
Police alleged that Kondopu used Roy’s identity and documents such as pay slips, bank statements, identification cards and other documents to obtain loans from several financial institutions such as J Mali Finance Ltd, Canon Finance Ltd and Heduru Moni Ltd between last February and March.