ATM Fraudsters Bag 5 Years for Stealing N18m

Ladipo Sanusi/

Two men who made N18million stealing from Automated Teller Machines (ATM) have earned five years imprisonment at the Federal High Court, in Lagos.

Usen Akpan and Ukpai Onyike were convicted and sentenced for defrauding different bank customers to the tune of over N18 million within two years.

Justice Ibrahim Buba convicted the ATM fraudsters after closely examining the prosecution evidence and that of the defence.

Akpan and Onyike were arraigned on a 5-count charge bordering on impersonation, conspiracy and obtaining ATM cards of Union Bank customers under the cyber crime act.

The EFCC lawyer, Ekene Iheanacho, submitted before the Court in the cause of trial that Akpan and Onyike were arrested at a Union Bank branch in Ibadan, Oyo State, while trying to obtain an ATM card of another unsuspecting customer of the bank.

The convicts all pleaded not guilty when they were arraigned on October 7, 2016, thereby setting the stage for their trial.

In the course of trial, the prosecution presented six witnesses and tendered relevant documents, which were all admitted in evidence.

Delivering his judgement today, Justice Buba said the prosecution had proved its case beyond any reasonable doubt. He, therefore, sentenced the first convict to five years imprisonment with an option of N4million fine.

The second convict got two years imprisonment with an option of N2.5million fine.

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