Student Steal From Teacher�s Accounts

A 19-year-old student of the Kpando Senior High School has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for stealing GH�2,404 from the accounts of three teachers at the Ghana Commercial Bank in Koforidua. Hagan Ofori is said to have loitered around the ATM machine area and offered assistance to those who found it difficult using the machine. He is said to have gotten the pin numbers of the three teachers who struggled to operate the machine, and exchanged their ATM cards with different ones. Prosecuting, Sergeant Hayford Osei explained to the Koforidua Magistrate court, presided over by Mrs. Priscilla Yeboah that in May and June, Ofori assisted two teachers, Regina Awuni Atariyam and Eric Afram Dwamena (complainants) to withdraw monies from the ATM but exchanged their cards with different ones. He used the ATM cards of the two teachers to withdraw GH�1,300 and GH�744 respectively from their GCB accounts in Koforidua, amounting to GH�2,044. The teachers upon detection of the theft of their ATM cards and the money, reported the matter to the bank. Sergeant Osei said on July 8, this year, Ofori again helped another teacher, Avode Amivi Dogbeba, and likewise exchanged his card with a different one. He later went to withdraw GH�350 from Dogbeba�s account at the Ghana Commercial Bank in Somanya. Following checks at the GCB branch in Kofridua, Ofori was captured on one of the CCTV cameras at the bank, attempting to use one of the stolen ATM cards to withdraw money from one of the accounts. The bank reported the matter to the Koforidua Criminal Investigations Department (CID) where an investigation into the matter was conducted and Ofori was arrested.