Mustapha Koroma, a Customer Service Officer at EcoBank, has been charged with 53 counts of embezzlement for defrauding customers of over 200 million Leones.

Magistrate Mark Ngegba of Court No. 1 Pademba Road, Freetown, presided over the first hearing. Koroma allegedly committed the offenses at the bank’s microfinance outlet on Regent Road, Lumley, Freetown.

The accused embezzled various sums of money received from different customers between February and September 2022.

Ibrahim S. Mansaray, assistant superintendent of police, led the prosecution’s first witness, Mohamed Bangura, head of internal audit at EcoBank, who identified Koroma as a former colleague who worked as a customer service officer at the Lumley branch.

The prosecution sought an adjournment date when Bangura confirmed that the customer’s account balance was empty when they checked it on March 27, 2023.

Meanwhile, the accused’s counsel, Solomon Turay, applied for bail under the Criminal Procedure Act, but the magistrate denied it and ordered the accused’s detention at the male prison.