Magistrate Colley of the Kanifing Magistrates' Court on Tuesday 4 March 2024 suspended the sentence of one H. Jammeh, a breastfeeding mother who pleaded guilty for stealing over D6,432,000 from Yonna Forex Bureau where she works as a teller.
The trial magistrate suspended the sentence after it was brought to his attention that the accused is a lactating mother and that she was going to pay the said D6,432,000.
H. Jammeh was charged with stealing by a clerk and servant contrary to Section 258 of the criminal code.
Police Prosecutor Sub-Inspector Kebbeh who appeared for the Inspector General of Police (IGP) during the Tuesday sitting, said the investigation report conducted by the police revealed that in December 2023, Yonna Forex Bureau did reconciliation with their partner banks (Bloom Bank and Zenith Bank) and found out that some transactions codes inputted in their system and indicated to have been paid out to individuals by the accused were not genuine.
The report, Kebbeh went on, further revealed that the accused (H. Jammeh) also did false input of foreign money purchased and sold which amounts to a sum of D 6,432,051.06.
"From the findings of the investigation, it was also established that from February to December of 2023, she frequently inputted wrong transaction codes in their system purposely to acquire funds from her employer."
"The accused H. Jammeh at Yonna Bureau in Bakoteh created a ghost account name with false code and fraudulently withdrew D65, 331 from the employer's account. On the 3rd and 21st of March 2023, she fraudulently withdrew D153,901 and D99,899 respectively from Yonna account. From that period, she acquired D6,432,051.60 by putting 94 fictitious Western Union and RIA transaction codes."
"In the same period, the suspect sent two fraudulent transactions to her husband who withdrew and handed over the accumulated amount of D105, 000.00 to her."
"The investigations revealed that out of the amount she fraudulently acquired from her employer she bought three plots of land respectively at a cost of D350, 000, D375, 000 and D1.3M each measuring 20by 25m. She also bought four vehicles amounting to D930, 000 all registered under her name and other remaining items costing D1, 374,000.
Prosecutor Kebbeh informed the court that they were able to recover D379, 550 and two vehicles and a title deed which are currently in the possession of the police.
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Meanwhile, the accused in her plea of mitigation, informed the court that she was a breastfeeding mother, while claiming that she would pay back the stolen money through installments and also recover the rest of the items which she would sell in order to recover the entire money.
Magistrate Colley in his ruling, suspended the sentence of the accused and ordered her to help the police in the recovery of the assets. She also ordered her to do the remaining title deeds that should be sold and added to the recovery or in default, she would be sentenced.
"In respect to the best interest of her child, the magistrate granted her bail in the sum of over six million dalasis with four Gambian sureties. He also ordered the accused person to be reporting at the Bakoteh Police Station failure of which would result in her sentence.
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