The Gqeberha Regional Court this week sentenced a former bank employee to five years’ imprisonment for breaching First National Bank’s systems and stealing a customer’s retirement savings.
Lusanda Gloria Qose, a 35-year-old mother of two, was convicted of fraud, cyber fraud, and unlawfully using her access credentials, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said.
She was a sales and service consultant at FNB’s Pier 14 branch in Gqeberha.
The complainant, Mlungwana Maranti (68), held an Encore account linked to a Money Maximiser account. Qose unlawfully changed his cellphone number on the bank’s system, diverting all one-time PIN authorisations to herself without his knowledge or consent.
Qose created a second bank card linked to Maranti’s accounts, which she used to transfer funds from the Money Maximiser account to the Encore account and conduct multiple ATM withdrawals between January and April last year. These fraudulent transactions resulted in a Maranti losing R245 000.
Qose used her employee number to access FNB’s core operating system, which contains confidential customer and transactional information. She bypassed internal security protocols, such as two-factor authentication and online fingerprint verification, and manipulated digital records to create the impression that Maranti had authorised the transactions.
In a victim impact statement, Maranti detailed the emotional toll the crime took on him and said he had contemplated committing suicide after watching his retirement savings vanish.
FNB ultimately refunded Maranti the R245 000.
The court found that Qose’s actions were premeditated and sophisticated, involving multiple system breaches over an extended period.
She pleaded guilty to all charges, citing financial distress as her motive. During sentencing proceedings, she and her aunt testified in mitigation, stating that Qose is a single mother of two children aged 13 and 17. She has repaid R87 000 through a deduction from her retirement fund and expressed remorse for her actions.
The court heard that Qose was fully aware that the funds she stole were earmarked to grow Maranti’s retirement nest egg.
Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit prosecutor Edmyrach Matabata argued that despite Qose being a first-time offender, her gross abuse of trust and exploitation of a vulnerable senior citizen warranted imprisonment.
The court concurred, emphasising that although Qose demonstrated remorse and the potential for rehabilitation, the offence not only harmed the victim but also eroded the public’s trust in the financial system.
