A FORMER ANZ officer who allegedly stole more than $100,000 from the bank last year will return to the Honiara Magistrates’ Court again on December 5.
The adjournment was made to allow Annie Agoga’s boyfriend Lonsdale Ale and her sister Elmas Toluko to find lawyers for them.
Agoga has already secured Lazarus Kwaiga of the Public Solicitor’s Office to represent her.
She is facing one count of larceny by a servant whilst the other two are facing charges of simple larceny.
Prosecution alleged Agoga stole more than $100,000 on two occasions and deposited the money into Ale and Toluko’s bank account at Westpac Bank.
The monies were said to be unclaimed funds in the bank.
Agoga at that time of the alleged offence was working at the bank’s call centre and also as a teller and reconciliation officer.
Her job was to reconcile and check unclaimed monies and even to raise other personal bank cheques and have them transferred to other banks.
Police alleged that whilst working as a reconciliation officer, Agoga stole huge amounts of money on two different occasions and as such the ANZ Bank sustain a huge loss.
On October 24, last year Agoga allegedly obtained a Bank cheque worth more than $33,000 which was written in the name of Ale.
The money was allegedly deposited into Ale’s account at Westpac Bank and withdrawn on various occasions using withdrawal slips and ATM card.
Again on December 13, last year Agoga allegedly obtained and raised another cheque worth more than $100,000.
The money was allegedly deposited into Toluko’s Westpac account.
The substantial amount of money was allegedly later withdrawn using a withdrawal slip and ATM card as well.
Agoga’s supervisor was suspicious of her when she allegedly brought her a letter of request that was said to be from Ale to be deposited into his account at West Pack Bank.
The amount raised was more than $150,000 and was found to be owned by JAK Legal Services.
It was alleged that Agoga’s supervisor then checked through her beam journal and found that those cheques raised by Agoga were in fact unclaimed monies that was in the bank.
The bank found that there was fraud involved.
It was alleged that during these times, Agoga’s absenteeism from work became frequent and she made excuses for not attending work.
The matter was then reported to the police by the bank management and police made prompt response to freeze the account of Ale and Toluko.
Unfortunately only more than $44, 000 was left in Ale’s account and more than $33,000 in Toluko’s.
Police also alleged Agoga made admissions during the police interview.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
