Businessman accuses Kisumu bank of fraud

A Kisumu-based businessman has appealed to the Banking Anti-Fraud Unit to launch investigations to establish under what circumstances he lost Sh200,000 from his bank account.

The director of Padam Skyline Spares and Services Limited, Sunny Padam, said he cannot still understand how an extra Sh200,000 was withdrawn from his account at I&M Bank Kisumu branch instead of Sh191,000.

He claimed that a total of Sh391,000 was withdrawn from his account between March and October last year and demanded Sh200,000 overdrawn from his account in excess.

Speaking to Weekly Citizen newspaper in Kisumu to express his predicament, Padam said he used to send one of his employees to withdraw money from his bank account at different times this year beginning March up to October this year when he detected that there has been fraud where exercise money of Sh200,000 had been withdrawn.

He said he suspect that there has been collusion between some of the bank’s tellers and his employee who might have worked on the forgery of the cheques he used to send the employee to the bank to withdraw the money.

He has accused the bank’s management of not being able to detect the fraud where the figures on the cheques were constantly being changed every time he sent the employee to withdraw the money from his account.

He particularly singled out the branch manager Ronak Patel, whom he has accused of being arrogant and not ready to help him get back the money which he lost fraudulently.

Padam said what is perturbing is the manner in which the management has handled his case without any fruitful gain of getting back his money, adding that what he wants is his money being returned back to his account.

He claims that one of the bank’s employees called him while trying to inquire what amount he had sent his employee to withdraw to which he replied that he only sent him to withdraw Sh6,000 and added that the bank’s employee informed him that the person was paid Sh16,000 had been withdrawn against the cheque instead of Sh6,000.

He said the last withdrawal of Sh16,000 was made through cheque No 001122 on October 9 2014 instead of Sh6,000 which was initially written to be withdrawn but had instead changed to be Sh16,000.

“This is now clear that the bank has no serious security protocols and therefore the client’s money is not safe at all at the said bank. Moreover, the bank’s management is unable to address this matter hence this is the reason as to why I am urging the anti-fraud unit to carry out investigations into this matter,” he said.

Efforts to get comments from the bank’s branch manager Ronak Patel who is accused for sexual harassment targeting female workers proved futile as he did not answer the SMS sent to him.