National service person allegedly steals GH¢303,950 from customer’s account

Jesper Kobina Mensah, a 25-year-old National Service Person, has been arraigned before the Accra Circuit Court for allegedly stealing GH¢303,950 through unauthorized electronic transfers from a Stanbic Bank Ghana Ltd. customer.

The case, presided over by Her Honour Sedinam Awo Kwadam, saw Mensah charged with one count of stealing contrary to Section 124(1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) as amended, and Section 107 of the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772). He pleaded not guilty to the charge, but the court denied his bail application and remanded him into police custody.

According to the prosecution, led by DSP Emmanuel Nyamekye, the case originated from a complaint filed by Stanbic Bank Ghana, represented by its Manager of Investigations, Ms. Genevieve Ama Gadikor.

The bank’s client, a Ghanaian resident in South Africa, detected unauthorised transfers from his account on July 15, 2025. Investigations revealed the money had been funneled into multiple MTN Mobile Money wallets registered under the names Abraham Asiedu, Stephen Eshun and Fatau Sulley.

One recipient, Fatau Sulley, was arrested on July 28, 2025. He was identified as a Binance merchant dealing in cryptocurrency transactions. Sulley admitted receiving funds but claimed he only acted as a middleman.

A month later, on August 28, 2025, police tracked and arrested Mensah at his hideout in Nungua, Accra. A search of his premises uncovered a cache of items linked to cybercrime, including nine mobile phones, two laptops, 108 registered Telecel SIM cards, 27 empty Telecel SIM starter packs, 72 registered MTN SIM cards, 88 empty MTN SIM starter packs and other assorted devices believed to facilitate digital fraud.

In his caution statement, Mensah admitted using two of the mobile numbers involved in the suspicious transfers. He also confessed to receiving the funds but claimed he was acting under instructions from unidentified Chinese nationals. According to Mensah, the supposed foreign accomplices ordered him to convert the stolen funds into cryptocurrency (USDT) and remit them via the Binance platform.

The case investigator, Detective Sergeant James Kwesi Turkson, confirmed that efforts are ongoing to trace the alleged international syndicate. Mensah is expected to reappear in court on a date yet to be announced as the prosecution builds its case.

This case comes at a time when Ghana is witnessing a sharp rise in cybercrime-related financial losses, with the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) reporting over GH¢14.9 million lost in the first half of 2025 alone, mostly through online fraud and mobile money scams.