Lawyer charged for alleged theft

A solicitor in his 50s will be produced at the Suva Magistrates Court charged with allegedly dishonestly appropriating more than $1.5million from a Bank between the months of May to June 2018.

The accused has been charged with theft contrary to Section 291 of the Crimes Act 2009. On the 18th of May 2018, the accused is alleged to have made an application for the installation of an EFTPOS machine in his office under the Supermarket mode, where he later switched it to Tourism mode without proper compliance to the Bank's policies and procedures.

By doing so, he allegedly enabled the transfer of $1,550,900.00 from the Bank to his firm's Operating Account with the same Bank, via several transactions between the months of May to June 2018.

The said funds were then further transferred to the Firm's Trust Account whereby multiple cheque withdrawals were conducted in which the accused was the sole signatory.

Through these alleged unlawful actions, the accused managed to dishonestly appropriate and deprive the bank of the said fund.

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