Banker steals N42million from dead customers’ account

The Special Fraud Unit(SFU), Ikoyi, Lagos, has arrested a banker, attached to one of the first generations banks in Lagos State, for helping himself to N33 million from one of the accounts of the bank’s customers.

The suspect, Olaiya Olusegun, had also been discovered to have been stealing money from deceased customers’ accounts. He stole over N2million from a dead customer’s account.

Olusegun is said to be the account officer of the victim, whose account he stole N33million.

He was found out and arrested after the victim went to cash money and discovered that his account was empty.

Investigations revealed that Olusegun was not only an account officer to the victim, but was also the victim’s tenant.

A police source said: “The suspect usually forges the signature of the victim on cheques and cashes same without the consent of the victim. He also applied for a cheque booklet in the customer’s name, using it to make withdrawal without the victim’s knowledge.”

Trouble was reported to have started for Olusegun when the victim, who at that time had over N30million in his account, sent someone with a cheque of N500, 000 to be cashed. The account was discovered to be empty.

“It was also discovered that when the customer gave him genuine cheques to cash, he made some alteration on them, increasing the figures and pocketing the balance,” said the source. “During investigation, it was also discovered that the suspect tampered with another account, belonging to one Adekunle, a deceased customer of the bank. He applied for, and collected a cheque booklet of the deceased customer four months after his death.

“He then forged the man’s signature and withdrew N2.175 million. He also converted the sum of N7million meant to open a fixed deposit account by a window in her name to his own use.”