By: Audrey Raymonda John
Prosecution witness No 2 Ibrahim Turay led in evidence by ASP Dahlia Wellington said he is a banker and head of compliance at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB)
He said his duties are to develop policies and procedures and ensure compliance of policies and procedures.
He knows both accused persons as former colleagues.
Recalled diverse dates between Thursday 1st December 2022 and 17th January 2023,
For the 4th period under review, management mandated himself and his team to SLRA
He said wrongful withdrawal was made on that account and those were not made by the account holders or the signatory, adding that no instruction came from them as to the withdrawal.
The second accused debited that account to the tune of one Billion Leones , he did so by debiting the account ten times that amounted to the one Billion Leones.
He said the accused used wrong withdrawal slip to support his action and that the bank does not support such, adding that the savings withdrawal slip were prepared by him which was wrong and did so for all ten withdrawal and used the wrong narration by using counter cheque code against the policy. of the bank
The witness said second accused credited another account wrongfully and divided the one Billion into two and credited Ishmeal Sillah saving account and that the Ishmael Sillah was a staff of the bank.
He added that from Waterloo branch, the first accused in their investigation received mail visa another colleagues email account instructing him to debit Ishmael Sillah account with an amount of nine hundred million.
Our Investigation revealed that the first accused and one of our vote controller Alice Makiue accepted the from Ishmeal Sillah account without going through the right procedures. That Spiggie amounted to 900 million. He accepted the Spiggie without preparing any memorandum to the effect and no management approval.
Having done so, First accused prepared a treasury voucher in and gave it to Alice to sign and endorsed which shows that they were in receipt of relevant cash
He said first accused treasury out for the cashier and gave it to the cashier to sign and he endorse it. The effect of the Treasury account means that they are removing cash for the teller on his/her request of 900 million. First accused also prepared withdrawal slip in place of customer
The effect of their action was a big loss to the bank as the money was wrongly removed from the customer’s account which the bank has to pay.
In conclusion of his testimony said, he did a report signed by himself and the managing director and later made statement to the police.
During cross examination, lawyer Lavalie asked the witness if he knows for how long he has work for the bank , the witness said he can’t tell.
The witness said investigations revealed that the transaction was done on 28 December 2022.
He confronted the witness that Ishmeal Sillah operated two accounts at the bank one current and savings, the witness said yes.
The witness said he was preview to the emails that was sent to the first accused by Ishmeal Sillah and can provide same to the court.
When the witness was asked as to whether the CCTV cameras were operational during the time the transaction occurred, the witness replied that they were not in operation during the transaction and after their investigation.
Bail continues and matter adjourned to the 17th September 2023.
