BY ROMINAH FAKA
Verbal sentencing submission for former Bank South Pacific (BSP) Teller has been moved for May 1.
Tessa Solenone Rore earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of larceny by servant and one count of forgery of certain documents with intention to defraud.
Yesterday prosecution told court it had obtained the victim’s impact statement from the bank, which it had tendered to court and defence.
Defence sought a one-week adjournment to allow it time to go through the victim impact statement, before it can respond in its sentence and mitigation submission.
Court extends bail for Ms Rore; she is to appear in court next week for sentencing and mitigation submissions.
Allegation said Rore was employed as a Money Gram Teller at the Bank of South Pacific Limited (BSP), Central Honiara branch, since April 16, 2015.
The allegations against the accused arose when BSP customers made an enquiry to the bank about suspicious withdrawals and deposits in or from their personal bank accounts in 2020.
There, accused was removed from the till and the BSP Operational Risk Unit conducted an internal assessment.
It was discovered that the shortage amount from the till was around $400,000.
The accused took out money from the till or drawer, which resulted in cash shortages and she would do withdrawals from customer’s accounts to balance the till at the end of each business day.
Prosecution further states, on the next business day, she would deposit the money back to the customer’s account from the till.
It has been discovered that the accused had done these fraudulent transactions on 40 customers’ accounts since April, 2020.
According to the investigation report, the total amount the accused stole from the till is $500,000.
In the month of August 2020, the accused was officially terminated from her employment. Jonathan Auga of DPP Office act for the State and Emy Rusi of PSO act for the Accused.
