Femi Ashekun/
A banking system glitch at Access Bank spectacularly transformed a modest N43,000 credit card limit into a N54.9 million cash window, allowing a customer with just N1.1 million in approved credit to withdraw more than N50 million before the anomaly was detected.
The beneficiary of the error, Olawale Solomon Faleti, a former employee of the Lagos State Ministry of Education, has now been sentenced to two years and five months’ imprisonment by a Lagos court for what the judge described as a calculated and deliberate theft.
Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja handed down the sentence on Monday after finding Faleti guilty of stealing N48,992,271.73 from Access Bank Plc.
Court records showed that Faleti had initially applied for a personal loan of N1.1 million, which was approved by the bank. He later obtained a credit card linked to his Access Bank account at the Alausa branch in Ikeja, with an authorised withdrawal limit of just N43,000.
The case took a dramatic turn in March 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown when Access Bank experienced a system malfunction.
Investigators revealed that the glitch automatically inflated Faleti’s credit card limit from N43,000 to an astonishing N54.9 million.
Instead of reporting the anomaly, Faleti moved swiftly to exploit it.
Evidence before the court showed that he began making repeated high value withdrawals, often on a daily basis, far exceeding his approved limit.
Between March and July 2020, he withdrew sums ranging from N500,000 to N5 million per transaction, eventually carting away a total of N50,939,966 from the bank.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said the withdrawals were not accidental or isolated.
Prosecutors told the court that Faleti fully understood that he had no legal authority to access such amounts but continued withdrawing funds until the loophole was closed.
He was arraigned on multiple counts of stealing and dishonest conversion, including charges relating to the unlawful conversion of N12.5 million and N6.8 million belonging to Access Bank.
In delivering judgment, Justice Oshodi dismissed any suggestion of innocence, ruling that the withdrawals were intentional and sustained.
“You acted with clear calculation, making multiple withdrawals while knowing you had no authorisation to do so,” the judge said, adding that Faleti showed no genuine remorse.
Beyond the prison sentence, the court ordered Faleti to make full restitution to Access Bank within six months and authorised the EFCC to trace and seize his assets, including identified properties, to recover the outstanding balance of N45,961,700.23.
The judge also directed that Faleti’s name be entered into the Lagos State Offenders Registry, sealing the legal consequences of what prosecutors described as one of the most blatant exploitations of a banking system error in recent years.
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