Court has issued a warrant of arrest against four Family Bank employees for failing to testify in court in a case where seven youths hacked into the bank system and stole over Ksh18M in 2018.
Nairobi Senior Principal Magistrate Bernard Ochoi issued the warrant of arrest after the prosecution counsel James Gachoka claimed that the four, who are the witnesses in the case, have failed to appear in court to testify in the matter.
In the criminal case, the youths who were aged between 23 years and 28 years at the time of the offence are alleged to have illegally accessed the bank computer system using another computer which was illegally introduced into the bank’s domain network and transferred the said money to each of their bank accounts.
All had been charged with counts of stealing contrary to the law, and five of them appeared at the court today (Thursday, January 20).
“Kelvin Gandi Omolo, Omworo Denis Otema, David Mirimo Nyongesa, Martin Artsewa Anjawa, Susan Kabui Wanjau, Samuel Njagi Mbogo and David Owen Kariuki, you are all charged that on March 27, 2018, jointly with others not before court conspired to commit a felony namely theft of Ksh18M property of the Family Bank,” the charge sheet read in part.
According to the police report seen by K24 Digital, the youths transferred Ksh950,000 to each of their bank accounts held in different banks in the country and immediately withdrew the said amount.
“Our investigations further disclosed that upon commissioning of the above computer fraud, the balances of the 31 bank accounts domiciled in the said banks’ various branches were altered to indicate that each of them had been credited with approximately Ksh950,000.
They all denied the charges and are out on a cash bail of Ksh500,000 each.
The court has ordered the matter to be mentioned on January 31, 2022.
