Ex-Sterling Bank Staff Jailed 10 Years For Theft, Certificate Forgery

A Lagos Magistrate’s Court, sitting in Tinubu Lagos Island, has sentenced a 20-year old former staff of Sterling Bank, Ikota, Lagos Branch, Samuel Dare Arayode to 10 years imprisonment for stealing the sum of N540,000 belonging to his employer and for forging a Lagos State Polytechnic Higher National Diploma Certificate with which he secured the job with the bank.

The convict, resident of Ajah area of Lagos State was convicted and jailed by Magistrate Fusikat Olamide after she found the convict guilty in the three-count charge of stealing and forgery preferred against him by the Police at the Maroko Division, Lekki, Lagos during the trial spanning about seven years.

Police alleged that the journey to jail started for the convict in 2014 when his employer audited his account books and uncovered that the convict had converted the money customers entrusted in his care to lodge in their accounts to his personal use instead of remitting the money into the bank’s account.

The management of the bank in the course of further investigation discovered that the Lagos State Polytechnic HND Certificate he used in securing the job with the bank was fake.

Arayode was arrested and charged before the court on a three-count charge, the offences, Police Counsel, Mr Ben Ekundayo said were punishable under sections 409, 285 (7) and 363 (1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Arayode pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted bail.

But after trial, Magistrate Olumide later found the convict guilty in all the three-count charges and sentenced him to 18 Months in count one for forgery, seven years in count 2 for stealing and 18 months in count three. 

Olumide directed that the convict must refund the stolen money to the bank with interest and that the sentence would run concurrently.