A MAN and his wife have been charged with the forgery of more than $15,000 from a private account at the Bank of South Pacific (BSP) Agent at Lata, Temotu Province.
Eddie Vaurou is facing 24 counts of forgery of certain documents with intend to defraud while Doreen Sanubo faces one count of forgery with intend to defraud.
A copy of the charge against Sanubo had just been tendered to the court yesterday.
Henry Kausimae, who represented Vaurou, had also just received copy of the charge against Sanubo in court.
Disclosures were already served to the defence counsel except for the record of interview of the accused.
Sanubo is on bail while Vaurou is in custody.
Mr Kausimae also raised his concern over the issue of several charges contained in one sheet.
He said there should be only be a charge on a single sheet and not several as it is now.
Mr Kausimae then asked the court if the prosecution can issue summon for Sanubo to appear on the next court hearing date.
Principal Magistrate Edwin Saramo adjourned the matter to 6 May and ordered that the prosecution issue summon for Sanubo.
He said the issue of the several charges contained in one sheet in relation to Vaurou’s charges will be dealt with on the next date.
The couple were charged in relation to the incidents between 18 August 2014 and 15 October 2014.
Police alleged they withdrew more than $15,000 from Ruxton Diwa’s account at Lata BSP on different occasions.
It was alleged that when Vaurou went to the bank agent, he would tell the officers when they asked him for his Bank card, that he lost his card.
According to the court documents, it is bank policy for customers to present their bank cards when withdrawing money.
The accused however, withdrew the monies without any bank card as he always gave excuses to the bank officers that he lost his card.
Police further alleged that Vaurou used to harass the bank officers by forcing the tellers to quickly serve him.
The court documents showed that bank officers at Lata BSP Agency mistaken Vaurou for Ruxton Diwa as he always came to withdraw money at the bank from the said account.
Vaurou was discovered by BSP Bank in Honiara that an account owned by Diwa of Russell Islands, Central Province, had been forged by the two accused.
The court documents revealed that BSP Bank in Honiara found out that the signatures of Diwa, who is the owner of the account, did not match that of Vaurou’s.
Police also alleged on one occasion, Sanubo accompanied the accused to the Bank to withdraw monies from Diwa’s account, claiming the account was her children’s saving account.
The court documents showed that the Temotu Provincial Government is the victim of this said forgery as the province is responsible for operating the BSP agent.
It further alleged that BSP headquarters in Honiara had to debit the Temotu Province main account to reimburse the monies to Diwa’s account.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
