A Lagos State court on Monday sentenced a former State Education Director, Olawale Faleti, 64, to two years and five months in prison for stealing N48.9 million from Access Bank.
Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Ikeja Special Offences and Domestic Violence Court convicted Faleti on five counts of fraud, after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) presented evidence of repeated unauthorized withdrawals.
In delivering judgment, Justice Oshodi noted that Faleti’s actions were deliberate and premeditated, exploiting a system glitch to siphon funds during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The judge further said Faleti showed no genuine remorse and failed to fully acknowledge his wrongdoing.
“Financial institutions are the lifeblood of our economy. Confidence in them must be preserved.
Those who defraud banks will face severe consequences,” Justice Oshodi said.
The court reduced the sentence by 20 per cent in recognition of Faleti’s first-time offender status and partial restitution efforts, ordering the prison term to run concurrently across all five counts.
Faleti, who had previously returned N3 million, was directed to pay an additional N45.9 million to Access Bank.
The court also ordered that his biometric details be recorded in the Lagos State Judiciary Offenders’ Registry.
EFCC counsel, Ahmed Dambuwa, told the court that Faleti exploited access to an Access Bank credit card allowing withdrawals of at least N43,000 per transaction.
One charge revealed that between July 2 and July 10, 2020, Faleti converted N12.6 million for personal use, while another noted N6.9 million was misappropriated between May 22 and July 1, 2020.
Faleti’s actions contravened Section 287(1)(a) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, the EFCC added.
The court ordered the sentence to commence immediately, with Access Bank required to notify the court upon full restitution.
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