Four SIM swap suspects granted bail

Four persons arrested in connection with a GH¢200,000 SIM swap fraud have been granted bail by an Accra Circuit Court.

Two of the accused persons, Stephen Arthur and Nicholas Gyekye, were each granted GH¢6 million bail with three sureties.

While Ahmed Ansah and Daniel Kodzi were each granted GH¢5 million bail with three sureties.

The accused persons pleaded not guilty to nine counts of conspiracy to steal, attempt to steal and participating in an organised crime.

Facts

The four were arrested by officers of the Economic and Organised Crime Office(EOCO) in collaboration with the Ghana Association of Banks at various locations across the country.

They are said to have illegally withdrawn an amount of GH¢2,100,000 from the accounts of some customers of one of the indigenous banks.

Investigations revealed that the accused persons sought the assistance of an official of the bank to provide them with bank account details to assist them withdraw funds from customers’ accounts.

Additionally, they requested for phone numbers and bank account details of customers with huge balances.

The accused persons then connived with an MTN staff who managed to clone three phone numbers to steal from the bank’s customers.

Prosecution said the sums of GH¢850,000, GH¢680,000 and GH¢50,000 belonging to three customers were targeted.

The accused persons setup a mobile application with the cloned sims to withdraw the funds from the customers’ bank accounts.

The case has been adjourned to 17 May, 2022.