Former Access Bank Staff Sentenced to 39 Years in Prison for Stealing Over N3m from Dead Customer

Lagos State High Court sentenced a banker named Olawale Garuba to 39 years imprisonment for stealing from a dead customer.

According to The Nation, Garubat and five others were charged with conspiracy and stealing before Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye in July last year. The fraud was uncovered by the bank when they discovered that some of their staff, including the convict, had connived with proxies to steal from a dormant account of one of the bank’s customers. This led to the arrest of Garuba and the others who were later handed over to EFCC for investigation and prosecution.

Garuba and his accomplices initially pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of fraud, however on the 2nd of June Garuba decided to change his plea from ‘not guilty’ to ‘guilty.’ He was sentenced during a hearing yesterday to three years in prison for each of the 13-count charge against him even though his lawyer pleaded that he was first time offender with a young wife and two little children.

The presiding judge on the case, Justice Ipaye said despite the remorse of the convict, she had 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.

Garuba’s sentences are to run concurrently from the date of his first detention, which is July 24, 2015.