A High Court of Edo State sitting in Benin City has sentenced Chinedu Francis Nwabuisi to two years in prison for converting the sum of N21.9 million inadvertently deposited to his bank account to his personal use.
Justice Irele Ifijeh convicted and punished Nwabuisi after he was arraigned by the Benin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, The Guardian reported.
The EFCC said Nwabuisi transferred to his use N21,939,237.27 erroneously credited into his account by First Bank Plc as a consequence of a system glitch.
The Commission said the offender was penalised for converting the monies to his personal use rather than reporting the erroneous payment or returning the money to the bank.
At the trial, counsel to the prosecution, M.S. Dahiru called two witnesses comprising a senior executive of First Bank and an EFCC operative.
The prosecution also produced documentary evidence which was received by the court.
Nwabuisi in his defence said that he believes the money was advantages from his operation of a Point of Sale company with the bank.
But the court found him guilty and sentenced him to two years rigorous imprisonment without the possibility of a fine.
Justice Ifijeh further directed Nwabuisi to refund the sum of N21,939,732.27 to the complainant, First Bank Plc.
The case was after monies were wrongly transferred into Nwabuisi’s account following the alleged system fault at the bank.
The statement from the EFCC did not say when the wrong credit took place, how much of the money Nwabuisi spent before his arrest or if any of the cash were recovered before the order for repayment.
The commission’s statement also put the restitution figure as N21,939,732.27 which is slightly more than the N21,939,237.27 it said was the amount wrongly credited into Nwabuisi’s account.
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