R. Cubagee & Company Limited, a Sunyani-based firm, has sued the Sahel-Sahara Bank for GH¢1 million over alleged unlawfully transfer of money from the company’s account into the account of an official of the bank.

The Managing Director of the firm, Raphael Cubagee, who filed a civil suit at a Sunyani High Court, told CITY & DAILY GUIDE that he uncovered the alleged fraud after a cheque he had issued to a business partner to withdraw money from his account at the bank was dishonored.

Six officials of the Sunyani branch of the bank, who were initially arrested in connection with the matter, are on police enquiry bail and assisting in investigations. The police are yet to file criminal charges against the officials of the bank linked to the alleged fraudulent transaction.

In his statement of claim, Mr. Cubagee is demanding GH¢1,000,000 as general damages for what he described as unlawful transfer of GH¢500 from his account with the bank into the account of one Dickson Acquah, an employee of the bank on 20th April, 2012 without his knowledge and consent.

The plaintiff is also claiming an interest on the said amount of GH¢500 from the date of the unlawful transaction until the date of judgment at the current prevailing banking rate and other costs.

Mr. Cubagee, who petitioned the Bank of Ghana (BoG), complained bitterly about the conduct of the Sahel-Sahara Bank.

In a letter dated 18th May, 2012 and addressed to the Head of the Banking Supervision Department of the BoG, Mr. Cubagee said on 20th April, 2012, he issued a cheque with a face value of GH¢500 to Messrs Asare Computers, Sunyani which was to be withdrawn from the Sunyani Branch of the bank after three months of the date of issue.

He explained that he issued another cheque with the face value of GH¢1000 to his business partners to be cashed at the same bank.

He however said upon presenting the said cheque to the bank, it was dishonoured on grounds that there insufficient money in his account.

“I applied to the bank for a statement of my account and upon the supply of the statement of account, I detected that the bank had, without my knowledge and consent, transferred a whopping sum of GH¢500.00 from my account into the account of one Dickson E. Acquah, an employee of the bank, he stated.

According to him, he subsequently applied to the bank to give him a photocopy of the cheque but the bank refused to give him a copy, a situation which compelled him to initiate legal action against the bank.

Meanwhile, the Sahel-Sahara Bank, in an apology to Mr. Cubagee, dated 25th April, 2012, admitted the incident and apologized to the customer.

“On 20th April, 2012, there was a debit of GHS 500.00 on your account number 500298 being a post dated cheque issued by the payee, Dickson Acquah. We wish to state that the transaction was wrongly posted and have taken steps to rectify it,” a letter signed by the Branch Manger stated.

However, Mr. Cubagee insisted that the incident caused a lot of embarrassment to him and his business partners and seriously affected his business operations which led to some losses.