2 STANDARD BANK TELLERS ARRESTED FOR THEFT

NHLANGANO – Two bank tellers were arrested after allegedly pocketing money belonging to the Nhlangano Standard Bank recently.

Authorities said a female and a male teller were arrested over the weekend after the bank reported a discrepancy. Investigations conducted by the bank revealed that the duo had been allegedly setting aside different amounts belonging to the bank to keep for themselves between the months of November last year and the current month of February.

The female teller is accused of stealing a total amount of E3 755 from the financial institution, while her male colleague is alleged to have stolen around E5 510.
According to court documents, Cebsile Dlamini (34) and Mthobisi Mabuza (30) were employed as tellers by the Standard Bank in Nhlangano, and used their positions of trust to allegedly embezzle money belonging to the bank for their own personal use. Information gathered was that the bank instituted internal investigations after management received reports about the suspected criminal activity. It was not immediately ascertained how the pair was able to allegedly steal the money but information gathered was that other employees of the bank were able to uncover the conspiracy before the fraud could balloon into huge amounts.

Investigation

The investigation that was launched by the bank led to the two bank tellers and police were subsequently roped in.
The duo was eventually arrested. They made their initial appearance yesterday morning before Nhlangano Senior Magistrate Joe Dlamini. They both haven’t entered any plea and the matter was postponed to March 12 for the setting of their trial date. Meanwhile, bail was fixed at E3 000 for the male suspect while the female was admitted to E2 500 bail.

This is not the first time bank tellers have been accused of using their positions of trust to steal from their respective financial institutions.
Two years ago, a former Swaziland Building Society manager, was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, with an option to pay a fine of E10 000.

He was further instructed to compensate the bank for its lost monies.
The offender was arrested following an internal audit which was set off by the financial institution’s superiors, after irregularities were noted by the bank’s accountant.

He was accused of embezzlement of funds amounting to E27 000 within a month. The fraud occurred at the Nhlangano branch of the financial institution.
The employee apparently made numerous transfers of funds from the bank’s suspense account into his different personal accounts on different dates between August 12 and September 5, 2016, and in the process defrauded the financial institution of about E27 000.

Unearthed

The fraud was unearthed on September 5, 2016, when accountants at the financial institution noticed the transactions by the staff member were credited against a suspense account. It was further discovered that his personal accounts had been overdrawn.
The culprit used another employee at the bank to facilitate the transactions into his accounts. Reports are that the manager would trick the junior employee by telling him that the fraudulent transactions had been approved by his superiors.

Being a senior employee at the bank, his subordinate would believe every word from the manager and heed to his instructions.
Again, it was also gathered that the manager would make phone calls to the relevant supervisors in the presence of the junior staffer, in order to make his instructions seem authentic.

After the accounts had been credited, he would then make withdrawals using a withdrawal slip from the same teller on separate occasions. In a bid to cover his tracks, the manager would again instruct the same employee to reverse the transaction on the following day.

During an investigation that was initiated by the bank’s superiors, the suspect was questioned about his actions, and he reportedly owned up to all the transactions, leading to his eventual arrest.
Subsequently, he appeared at the Nhlangano Magistrates Court where he pleaded guilty to the charge of fraud.

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