Banker bags 39 years jail term forstealing N30m from dead customer

Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye of the Lagos
State High Court Thursday sentenced
one Olawale Garuba to thirty nine
years imprisonment for stealing from
the dead.

The convict was arraigned alongside
six others in July 2015 for conspiring
among themselves to steal over N30
million from the bank account of a
deceased customer of a new
generation bank where the convict
works.
The fraud was uncovered by the bank when it discovered that some
of its staff, including the convict had connived with proxies to steal
from a dormant account of one of the bank’s customers.
Upon the discovery of the fraud, the bank apprehended the staff and
handed them over to EFCC for investigation and prosecution.
Upon their arraignment, they pleaded not guilty to eighteen counts of
fraud, but Justice Ipaye refused their bail application and remanded
them in prison custody.
However, on June 2, 2016, the convict changed his plea from ‘not
guilty’ to ‘guilty’ and was immediately convicted by Justice Ipaye,
who adjourned the case to Thursday for sentencing.
Counsel representing the convict, O. Ajanaku pleaded with the court
to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing his client. He told the
court that his client was a remorseful first time offender with a
young wife and two little children.
Prosecution counsel Abba Mohammed, urged the court to consider
the three way traffic while tampering justice with mercy. That is the
interests of the court, the victim and the convict.
After listening to the prayers of counsel, Justice Ipaye said despite
the remorse of the convict, she has no sympathy for him as he
compromised his position as a banker to steal from a deceased
customer whose money would have been used by the family she left
behind.
She added that the convict allowed his greed to overcome him and
risk losing the job that thousands of job seekers are craving to get.
She found the convict guilty on thirteen of the eighteen counts, and
sentenced him to three years imprisonment on each count. The
sentences are to run concurrently from the date of his first
detention, which is July 24, 2015.