Police arraign sales rep for stealing N1.15m goods

The police in Lagos have arraigned a 36-year-old sales representative, Abiola James, before an Ikeja Magistrate’s court for the alleged theft of her employer’s goods worth N1.15million.
Before her arrest and consequent arraignment, James was a resident of No. 9 Bukola Street, DalemoSango in Ogun State.
She is facing a one-count charge of stealing before Magistrate A.A Adesanya. The prosecutor, Inspector Nwosu George, told the court that the accused committed the offence between July and October 2016 in Agege, a Lagos suburb.
George said that the accused was employed by the complainant, Mrs. Johnson Olayinka, as a sales representative with the responsibility of managing her supermarket.
The prosecutor said that the complainant discovered that proceeds from the supermarket were not being wholly remitted into her account by the accused.
The discrepancies, according to the charges, was noted between the periods under review.
“Audit of goods was taken and the accused could not give satisfactory account of the short fall,’’ the prosecutor said.
George alleged that the accused took the money and converted it to her personal use.
“All efforts made to make the accused refund the money proved unsuccessful as she was nowhere to be found until she was later arrested by the police,’’ the prosecutor said.
The offence contravened Section 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
Section 285 prescribes a 3-year jail term for stealing, if convicted. The accused, however, pleaded not guilty.
The Magistrate, Adesanya, granted the accused bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum.
Adesanya said that the sureties must be blood relations of the accused with two years evidence of tax payment to the Lagos State Government.