FOR two months, more than R1,5 million simply vanished from the bank’s coffers and no one knew where it had gone!
That was until the bank investigated and found that one of its employees had allegedly helped herself to between
R200 000 and R450 000 on days when it seemed the coast was clear.
Katlego Malibe (30), a former teller at First National Bank’s Bushbuckridge Shopping Mall branch, appeared in the Mhala Regional Court on Wednesday to face six charges of theft.
She is accused of having stolen R1,5 million between April and May 2011.
Malibe allegedly withdrew R450 000 from a wholesaler’s account which had been de-activated on 21 April 2011. Two more transactions of R200 000 each were made on 26 and 28 April. Similar amounts were again withdrawn on 4 and 6 May. The last transaction, for R300 000, was made on a recently deceased customer’s account. The husband of the late customer alerted the bank after he noticed the transaction.
The bank’s forensic investigator, Charlin Govend, told the court that when the money started vanishing the branch manager called them in to investigate. “Our investigation revealed that money went missing on the teller where the accused was operating,” Govend said. “We interviewed her and she claimed the administration manager ordered her to make the transactions on the accounts and that they would then share the money equally.
“Later she told us, however, that she did not want to disclose any more information about the matter.”
The crime scene was revisited on Thursday, when video footage from the accused’s teller station on the days the transactions were made was shown to the court.
The bank’s fraud unit investigator, Thomas George, said the footage had been analysed and the accused was spotted with blue bags behind her teller table.
Magistrate Elmarie Theron postponed the matter to 8 and 10 February 2017 to allow the state to prepare an application to summon the branch manager to testify.
Malibe is out on bail.
