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Jessica Oforiwa, a 35-year-old caterer and hairdresser, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment after being found guilty of stealing GH₵81,060 from GCB Bank customers through the use of cloned cheques.
Oforiwa faced seven charges, including abetment of crime and stealing, with her sentences to run concurrently. Her accomplices—Dawda Sawdido, Mohammed Muktar, Fuseini Saeed Ibrahim, Felix Mensah, Lawrence Quarshie, and Philip Ansah—remain at large.
Prosecutors revealed that in 2022, Oforiwa and her accomplices cloned eight cheques from GCB customers, allowing them to withdraw funds fraudulently. Notable victims included:
- Rejoice Emekor Senezah, who lost GH₵12,000 on January 10, 2022.
- Felcon Electrical Enterprise, which was defrauded of GH₵47,460 on April 13, 2022.
Investigations revealed that Oforiwa’s company, Jesnat Cook Company, was used as the primary beneficiary for the stolen funds. The group employed chemical methods to erase and modify account details and signatures on original cheques to make them appear legitimate.
Among the fraudulent transactions were:
- GH₵4,700 withdrawn by Dawda Sawdido.
- GH₵9,700 withdrawn in two separate transactions by Mohammed Muktar.
- GH₵5,000 taken by Fuseini Saeed Ibrahim.
- GH₵47,460 withdrawn by Felix Mensah.
Suspicious actions during a GH₵4,700 withdrawal attempt on August 1, 2022, led to the arrest of two accomplices, Philip Ansah and Livingston Ankomah, at GCB Bank’s Kaneshie and Kwame Nkrumah Circle branches. Ankomah confessed and was subsequently jailed.
Oforiwa was arrested on December 24, 2022, in Kwahu Nkwatia. During interrogation, she admitted to using the fraudulent cheques and implicated her boyfriend, Samuel Gyane Nyanteh.
The judge acknowledged her status as a first-time offender and a mother of two but emphasized the premeditated nature of her crimes. A deterrent sentence was deemed necessary to curb the growing threat of financial fraud, which jeopardizes trust in the banking sector.
The court urged financial institutions to:
- Strengthen ICT security systems.
- Train staff, especially tellers, to detect fraudulent cheques.
These measures, the judge noted, are essential to safeguarding depositor and shareholder funds and maintaining public confidence in the financial sector.
