Man Charged with Stealing over Sh400,000 from a Bank Account of a Kenyan in the US

A man was on Monday arraigned in court for allegedly stealing over Sh400,000 from a Cooperative Bank account belonging to a Kenyan living and working in the United States.

The court heard that when Henry Thuita returned home from the US, he discovered that his account had insufficient funds and reported the incident to the Cooperative Bank.

Investigations by the bank determined that the funds were withdrawn through a Safaricom mobile phone number linked to the account in 2019. 

The number initially belonged Thuita but it became inactive after he relocated to the US in search of greener pastures.

The number was then recycled by Safaricom over inactivity and was subsequently given to another user Jared Atambo, who is the suspect. Atambo then fraudulently accessed the said account using the bank's USSD code, the court heard.

"The accused further claims that he thought he was transacting in his own account a fact which was false as he had never operated any account with Co-operative Bank and only had a Co-operative wallet," the charge sheet reads. 

Appearing before Chief Magistrate Mutemi on Monday, Atembo pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming he received the money from the bank and thought he had won a lottery.

He told the court that when he received the money from the bank, he mistook it for money from local betting companies.