Cashier Tunde Abdulramon was sentenced to five years in prison by the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja for using his employer’s N64,420,900 to marry a new wife and start a similar business for her.
Along with the sentence, Justice Raliat Adebiyi directed the offender to return all of the properties he had purchased while working for his employer and the money he had pilfered.
On August 19, 2013, the convict was arraigned on 11 counts that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had preferred against him and which included fraudulent false accounting and theft.
The crimes committed were against Lagos State’s 2003 criminal codes, Sections 390 and 335 (d).
In his capacity as cashier at Prime Grocers International Limited, a wholesale and retail consumer goods company based in the Oke Arin neighborhood of Lagos State, Abdulramon’s responsibilities included receiving payments from customers for invoices raised by sales representatives, recording them in his cash register, and depositing the money into the bank account that the business had designated.
Rather, the defendant was charged with erasing the bills and misappropriating substantial amounts of money paid by clients and lodgers. The fraud was only uncovered in 2012 by the managing director of the company when an audit of the computer software was conducted after a tip that the defendant had been erasing invoices was received.
Between January 2009 and 2012, when his employer’s fraud was discovered, Abdulramon committed the offenses.
Constance Obi, the complainant, was one of the six witnesses called by the prosecution during the trial. She informed the judge that she first met the guilty person in 2002, when the business began importing products for distribution.
Abdulramon was one of the temporary workers who unloaded cargo from the container, but in 2004, he came to her for help, and after that, he got a permanent job at the company, according to Justice Adebiyi.
The witness stated in court that the prisoner’s 2004 job duties included selecting and packaging merchandise for clients prior to his advancement to cashier.
In November 2012, Obi further testified that she received an anonymous call informing her to investigate Tunde Abdulrahmon, the cashier at her store, as it appears he has criminal activity due to recently acquired properties, vehicles, and a new wife.
She further stated to the court that the prisoner visited her office three days after she got the call and offered to turn in a resignation letter, which she declined to accept.
Subsequently, the complainant claimed, she examined the computer’s audit trail, which screened the prisoner’s identity, and produced a report indicating that he had been expunging invoices.
However, the prisoner refuted the accusations made against him in his defense.
Justice Adebiyi rendered her verdict and declared the defendant guilty.
She ruled that there was evidence supporting the complainant’s unwavering confidence and that the prosecution had proven the convict’s alteration of the company’s record beyond a reasonable doubt.
The judge determined that the convicted individual was the driving force behind the removal of every invoice and the transfer of customer payments to both his personal and business accounts.
Abdulramon exploited the degree of confidence that the company’s CEO (the complainant) placed in him. The offense was also committed time and time again over the course of four years.
The court determines that the defendant had a high degree of guilt; concerning the harm inflicted, the court concludes that the defendant’s actions should have resulted in a considerable financial loss for his employer, even though the employer didn’t seem to realize this for four years.
“There was a conflict of interest because the thief was involved in similar business activities to his employer while he was still employed, and the amount stolen was of considerable value,” the judge ruled.
“Tunde Abdulramon is hereby sentenced to two and a half years on counts one through nine and to two and a half years on counts ten and eleven, to run concurrently,
“The convict’s properties that were purchased with proceeds from the offense are to be disposed of, and the complainant will receive the proceeds,” Justice Adebiyi declared.