A client of the defunct Capital Bank has sued Mr. Collins Adomako-Mensah, a former staff of the collapsed Bank, together with the Receiver and GCB Bank over an alleged fraud involving a secret transfer of funds from the accounts the client (name withheld for now).
According to the Court documents sighted by Awake News, the funds totalling GHc264,094.00 were alleged to have been fraudulently transferred by Collins Adomako-Mensah, a Relationship Manager at the Spintex branch of the Capital Bank to his personal microfinance company named AND Financial Services between 2016 and 2017 without the knowledge or consent of the client.
The Plaintiff is claiming GHc15million in damages caused to his reputation as a credible and trusted businessman and losses suffered in his business relationships with his creditors and suppliers.
According to the Court documents, the GCB Bank has been added to the suit because it took over the assets and liabilities of the defunct Capital Bank, and at the time of the fraudulent transactions, the said Collins Adomako-Mensah was an employee of the Bank and has since the collapse of the bank became an employee of GCB Bank.
However, Mr. Adomako-Mensah in his Defense denied the claims made by the Plaintiff in its Statement of Claim.
“Save as hereinafter expressly admitted, the 4th Defendant denies each and every allegation of material facts canvassed in the Plaintiff’s Statement of Claim as if same has been set out in extensor and denied seriatim.”
The Plaintiff alleged that “sometime between 2016 and 2017, it has observed that cheques issued to its creditors and suppliers were constantly returned due to insufficient funds in the account of the Plaintiff. This is in spite of the fact that the Plaintiff always ensured that it had enough funds in its accounts whenever it issued cheques” and anytime they spoke to the 4th Defendant [Mr. Collins Adomako-Mensah] who is their Relationship Manager, he assured them that there was nothing wrong with the account.
The company also alleged that anytime they requested for their bank statement, Mr. Adomako-Mensah told them that their system had a problem and could only print statements in a Microsoft Excel format, which contained falsified balances.
The company further said due to the persistence of the situation, they were forced to go to their bank branch in the absence of their Relationship Manager, Mr. Adomako-Mensah and were given a proper copy of their statement of accounts, and after reconciling transactions on their account, it became obvious that the amount of “GHC264,094.00 (Two Hundred and Sixty Four Thousand and Ninety Two Ghana Cedis) had been fraudulently transferred from Plaintiff’s accounts.
The “Plaintiff states that it also observed that although it received SMS alerts whenever a transaction occurred on its accounts, it never received any SMS alerts in respect of the unauthorized transfers, [and that the] Microsoft Exel statements previously printed by the 4th Defendant for the Plaintiff were falsified and did not reflect the true state of the accounts of Plaintiff,” revealed further by the Plaintiff’s Statement of Claim.
The Company alleged further that upon complaint to the management of the Bank, it was assured that the issues would be resolved and that the said Mr. Adomako-Mensah had been directed to refund the said amounts to the client’s account within four (4) weeks.
However, Mr. Adomako-Mensah only refunded GHc50,000.00 on October 26, 2017 and gave out two post-dated cheques of GHC100,000.00, which were all returned by his bank.
The Plaintiff claimed that it was forced to lodge a complaint at the Achimota Police Station but “anytime officers of the Plaintiff enquired from the Police station on the status of the investigations, they were informed the investigations are still on-going”.
Mr. Adomako-Mensah’s defense:
While denying all the claims against him, Mr. Collins Adomako-Mensah admitted in his Statement of Defense that the AND Financial Services belonged to him, but denied ever transferring any funds from the plaintiff’s account to the accounts of his company and that the “Plaintiff at all material times were very aware of the transactions on its account.”
On the issues of returning of cheques drawn on the Plaintiff’s account, Mr. Adomako-Mensah said “it is the normal practice that cheques are returned when funds in any account are insufficient”
However, he admitted paying the amount of GHc50,000.00 into the Plaintiff’s ADB Bank account on October 26, 2017. He claimed he duly informed the Plaintiff not to present the two post-dated cheques of GHC100,000.00 “…but for whatsoever reason the Plaintiff went ahead to present the cheques at the bank.”
Mr. Adomako-Mensah is his response to the case filed against him at the Achimota Police Station said “the Police upon hearing his side of the story encouraged the parties to rather try to settle the matter amicably”
GCB Bank’s Defense:
The GCB Bank on its part, while denying knowledge of the claims in the Plaintiff’s Statement of Claim, said it is not responsible for the actions of Mr. Adomako-Mensah before his employment by the GCB Bank.
The Bank also said “3rd Defendant further states that it did not assume the account of [withheld] and therefore not the proper party to answer questions on the said account. The transactions relating to the account at all material times occurred even before the 3rd Defendant assumed selected assets and liabilities of the Capital Bank now in receivership”
Plaintiff’s reliefs from the Court:
The Plaintiff is seeking the Court to direct the Defendants to pay the balance of GHC214,094 with interest from March 31, 2017 until the final day of payment; “damages of GHC10million for loss of reputation for unlawfully returning cheque issued by Plaintiff to its suppliers and creditor” and a further “damage of GHC5 million for defamation resulting from the unlawful returning of cheques issued by Plaintiff to its suppliers and creditors”
The case which was called on October 11, 2019 has been adjourned to October 25, 2019 and then to November 7, 2019.
Awake News’ contacted Mr. Adomako-Mensah but he declined to comment on the matter adding that the case is still in court.
By: Efo Korsi Senyo / awakenewsroom.com
