Former field officer jailed for stealing customers GH¢96,490 to settle mum’s debt

A Tarkwa Circuit Court has sentenced a 34-year-old former field officer of National Trust Holding Company (NTHC) Trustee, to five years imprisonment in hard labour for stealing GH¢96,490 belonging to some customers of the firm.  

Comfort Asante, who pleaded not guilty to stealing and forgery of a document, alleged she took the cash to help settle a debt owed by her mother.  

After the full trial, the court presided over by Hathia Ama Manu, found Asante guilty of both counts, and convicted her accordingly to discourage others from doing same.  

The prosecutor, Chief Superintendent of Police Alex Odonkor, told the court that the complainant is the NTHC Trustee, a company registered under the laws of Ghana to manage pension schemes.  

He said the convict’s responsibilities included going to the field daily to educate the public, register, and collect contributions on behalf of the company about the Tier three pension scheme or the SSNIT Informal Scheme Product (SISP), which was managed by her employer.  

Chief Superintendent Odonkor said Comfort was also required to enter accurately the pension contribution by customers electronically into the company’s system on an official cell phone issued to her by the company and record same into the passbook of the contributors.  

Prosecution said the system would automatically generate a receipt number after the contributions were captured electronically, and then a text message alert was sent to the customer to confirm payment.  

He said between May 2nd and 5th, 2023, officers of the company received complaints from some contributors that they had not been receiving alerts for the contributions they made to the company through Comfort.  

Chief Superintendent Odonkor informed the court that the company vetted the passbooks of the contributors Comfort dealt with, and noticed that the figures as existed in the passbooks were different from those she had entered in the company’s system.  

He said they further detected that the convict had provided receipt numbers in the passbook of contributors, which were not generated by the company’s system. 

The prosecutor said on May 17, 2023, a report was made to the police by the company, and Comfort was arrested after investigations, admitting the crime in her caution statement.  

Additionally, the prosecutor said the internal auditors of the company carried out an audit, and it indicated that Comfort had dishonestly appropriated a cash sum of GH¢96,490, being contributions made by thirty-two customers through her.  

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