BY ROMINAH FAKA
Tessa Solenone Rore, 31, plead guilty yesterday at the magistrate court to two counts of larceny by servant and one count of forgery of certain documents with intention to defraud.
Prosecution and defence sought court for an adjournment for them to prepare the sentencing and mitigation submissions.
Court granted their request and adjourned the matter to February 28.
The allegation states, 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 arise when BSP customers made an enquiry to the bank about suspicious withdrawals and deposits in or from their personal banks’ 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 account since April, 2020.
According to the investigation report, the total amount the accused stole from the till is about $500,000.
In the month of August 2020, the accused was officially terminated from her employment.
Jonathan Auga of DPP Officer appears for the Crown and Emy Rusi of PSO appears for the Accused.
