A cleaner at Equity Bank and a 59-year-old woman have been charged with stealing money from banks.

Brevin Lugembe, a cleaner at Equity Bank, has been charged with conspiracy to steal Sh24,661,806 from the bank on or before February 10, last year, jointly with others not before court.

Lugembe pleaded not guilty to the charges. His lawyer pleaded with the court to grant him favourable bail terms.

“Your honour, my client is a cleaner at the said institution. I don’t think he has the capacity to siphon this kind of money,” the lawyer told the court.
The prosecution asked Milimani Principal Magistrate Martha Mutuku to consolidate Lugembe’s case with another one already before court. Lugembe was remanded until tomorrow when the case will be mentioned for consolidation.

Still at Milimani law courts, three women, including a 59-year-old, whose lawyer described as a “semi-literate” victim of hi-tech computer operations, were charged with hacking into a banking system to steal more than Sh24 million from Consolidated Bank.

The court heard that Josphine Mumo, who is charged alongside Damaris Mutheu and Regina Nyambura, was informed that her picture had appeared in the Press and presented herself before the local chief. She was then advised to go to Machakos Police Station, where she was apprehended by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

“Your honour, it is ridiculous that at her age the DCI can charge her with altering computer data. She cannot even operate a smartphone,” her lawyer, Boniface Nyamu, told the court.

The three suspects were accused that on diverse dates between December 31, last year and January 7, they fraudulently and with intent to steal, altered data in the Consolidated Bank core banking system.
The charges further stated that they transferred money to different bank accounts, causing the lender loss of Sh24,588,800.
Their charge sheet also read that on the same dates and place, the three conspired to steal Sh24,588,800 from the Consolidated Bank.

Mumo, 59, faced an additional count of handling stolen goods.

The court heard that last January 7, she withdrew from her Stanbic Bank account a sum of Sh183,420 through an M-Pesa transaction, knowingly or having reasons to believe that it was stolen.

Damaris was charged with stealing Sh560,500 from the Consolidated Bank and withdrawing Sh559,374 through M-Pesa and account-to-account transfer knowingly or having reasons to believe it was stolen.

Regina was charged with stealing Sh431,374 through M-Pesa and PesaLink transaction, knowingly or having reasons to believe it was stolen.

The three denied the charges and were each released on a bond of Sh300,000 or a Sh200,000 cash bail.

Stolen identity or these charges are real?

A big scandal this is.

So how did they withdraw money they did not have in the account via mpesa.

They are part of the game.Pretend you dont know how to use a smart phone nyef nyef nyef

Ofcouse the hacking was done by the experts but withdrawal of the loot was done by them.

As an ex banker I an tell you the most serious frauds were committed by women who you would never suspect.Even stealing within the banking hall so done by hopeless looking women

Hehe Tuko wengi.
I also do this.

KEBS, KPA, KRA, NSSF, Immigration or where? Be specific.

You can't move on with our taxes sir

Bankers seem to be the biggest thieves we have around. The Barclays ATM heist was most likely carried out by an insider or a person coordinating with an insider.

Surprisingly this job is likely to be the work of outsourced services coordinated by some high tech thieves and not bankers. When you have graduates running around town filling and emptying ATM while paying them peanuts, you get this as the end result.

This Barclays theft has to do with merger with ABSA. Watu wanajipanga!

Additionally, they chose to strike just after two of the ATMs had been reloaded with cash.

This has heightened suspicion that someone on the inside must have tipped them off. On-site ATMs, which are located at banking halls, are loaded directly by the bank.

However, off-site ATMs like the ones that were robbed are loaded by the security company contracted to guard them.

The security company monitors the cash level inside the machine on a daily basis and then requests for money or technical assistance from the bank whenever required.

In case an off-site ATM needs to be reloaded, all the security company does is to make a requisition and then go pick the money.

Like a day before the ATM at Mutindwa was robbed, G4S personnel had just loaded it with Sh7 million. Out of this, Sh6.2 million was discovered missing 24 hours later.