Company demands Sh3.8m from bank in fraud case
A customer at Cooperative Bank branch. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The company states through its lawyer Titus Koceyo that cheques drawn in favour of Mr Mutemi were forged by altering the amounts to read different amounts which were paid by the bank through collusion with an insider. The alleged cheques were paid between August 2015 and June this year.
- It accuses the bank of failing to protect it as its customer from any fraudulent act conducted on its account especially by Mr Mutemi, who has been named as a defendant in the case required to be fast tracked.
- In the case filed at the Milimani Commercial Court , Mr Koceyo says cheques drawn by Autocare would be handed over to a particular employee of the bank by the name Ludie “who would purport to call it to verify the information on the cheque.”
A garage is seeking payment of over Sh3.8million from a bank it accuses of colluding with a former employee to defraud it.
Midland Auctocare Limited states in the case that Cooperative Bank of Kenya paid cheques it alleges were forged by its former accountant — Mr James Mutemi.
The company states through its lawyer Titus Koceyo that cheques drawn in favour of Mr Mutemi were forged by altering the amounts to read different amounts which were paid by the bank through collusion with an insider. The alleged cheques were paid between August 2015 and June this year.
It accuses the bank of failing to protect it as its customer from any fraudulent act conducted on its account especially by Mr Mutemi, who has been named as a defendant in the case required to be fast tracked.
In the case filed at the Milimani Commercial Court , Mr Koceyo says cheques drawn by Autocare would be handed over to a particular employee of the bank by the name Ludie “who would purport to call it to verify the information on the cheque.”
The said Ludie would therefore claim that the amount to be paid was as contained in the payment information that had been authorised by the plaintiff which has named the bank and Mr Mutemi as defendants.
The alleged forgeries were orchestrated by “prefixing a number in the amounts drawn”
As a result of the said prefixing the, company lost a huge sum of money through the alleged fraudulent transactions and the Court is being urged to compel the bank to return the money to its account at the Bank’s Enterprise Branch in Industrial Area, Nairobi.
Mr Koceyo says a cheque of Sh5,000 was “Prefixed to read Sh95,000 and also Sh405,000”
“Even in instances where the cheques at their face value appeared altered and contents erased, the bank proceeded to pay the same without any counter-signing by Autocare,” Mr Koceyo states in the court papers.
The garage says as a result of the alleged acts of forgery and collusion it suffered a loss and damage.
It is, therefore, asking the High Court to order the bank to return to its account Sh3,882,000.
The case will be allocated a hearing date by the registry.
