A lady named Gifty Tetteh was sentenced to prison for making an incorrect transfer while working as a Mobile Money agent. She claimed that she sent GH30,000 to a customer when she was only supposed to send GH3,000. It was too late to correct the error when Gifty realized she had made a wrong transfer and as a result, her boss had her arrested.
She was taken to court and jailed for her inability to refund the money, as well as her failed attempt to persuade the customer to reverse the transaction. An oversight perhaps, but that could not convince the judge enough as Gifty painfully recounted how she was given a two and a half years sentence. The judge also instructed that she produce the GH¢30,000 to her boss right after serving her jail term.
Gifty, who used to work in Afariwa, Tema Golf City, at the time, said all attempts to retrieve the money from the ‘lucky account’ were futile. “I was in the shop one day and someone wanted to send money, GH¢3,000. Mistakenly, I sent more than that. That is GH¢30,000. We called and called the person didn’t pick up. That was my first time setting my eyes on the sender. I had not seen him before. He is not even my customer. There were people in a long queue so I was under pressure. We called the MTN customer care line and we were informed that the recipient had withdrawn the money. The next day my boss took me to the MTN office but still nothing came out of it. Initially, my family and I pleaded that I worked to refund the money. I started paying GH¢1000 a month for four months. The fifth month, I paid GH¢800 and that was when he said he wouldn’t accept such an arrangement.”
She went on to say that her boss was unwilling to compromise and that all of her requests were met with silence. She was sentenced to two and a half years in a cold prison.
