Woman pleads guilty to stealing from customer

By JACINTA COHLEE
A WOMAN, 27, pleaded guilty to stealing a bank card and more than K6,800 from an elderly supermarket customer in a Lae grade five court on Monday.
Magistrate Lorna Sani set July 18 to sentence Elizabeth June, from Ramale village in Gazelle, East New Britain, and extended her bail.
Police told the court that on Jan 12, at Anderson Foodland in Eriku in Lae, Elizabeth stole a BSP bank card at the counter as she was a cashier.
She also consecutively withdrew a total of K6,836 cash from a female customer.
The police hand-up brief stated that Cecelia Kawage, a 60-year-old from Chimbu, after her shopping, decided to check her balance when Elizabeth offered to help her.
Once Cecilia entered her PIN number, she took note of it.
Police also told the court that Elizabeth saw a balance of K16,580 in the victim’s account and intentionally lied to the victim.
She had told the victim that the electronic funds transfer at the point of sale was down and could not perform any transaction.
The court noted that Cecilia saw that other tills were working fine and she rushed back to Elizabeth for the service.
The court heard from the police that the victim in her rush to go home, forgot her bank card.
The accused had given Cecilia the receipt only and not the bank card.