How Co-operative bank was robbed Sh115 Million

janet ndila

March 22, 2017 12:23 PM

Fresh details have emerged revealing how Co-operative bank was robbed Sh115 Million by gamblers during...

File Image of Co-operative Bank

Fresh details have emerged revealing how Co-operative bank was robbed Sh115 Million by gamblers.

The revelations were brought to light after one Antony Kimani, sued the bank after they froze his account which had Sh18 Million.

Mr Kimani revealed that his account was frozen after he withdrew Sh14 Million using his mobile phone.

The bank got suspicious that Kimani’s account was a savings one, yet there were more inflows than outflows, which was not ordinary compelling them to freeze the account.

However, it would later emerge that the bank system had malfunctioned and was not debiting Kimani’s account, who was using the money for gambling purposes.

Appearing before the court, a manger in the bank, Edwin Karuri, told the court that on May 7, 2011, he initiated investigations that revealed seven customers transacted debits totalling Sh115, 869,566 over a period of eight months using credit cards which were not recorded.

Detectives would later reveal that between October 2010 and May 6, 2011, transactions from gambling sites were not being recorded or detected by the bank's software which saw it lose millions.

"This led to suspicion that bank employees were aware of the malfunction in the bank's system and had encouraged customers to take advantage of it," Mr Karuri told the judge.

The revelations come barely a day after a gang robbed Sh30 Million from Co-operative bank, Isiolo branch after colluding with staffers.

The robbers are said to have accessed the bank on Sunday evening after colluding with one of the employees who opened the door for them.

janet ndila