MADINAH, 10 October — Makkah Police arrested an accountant at a local bank for his alleged involvement in stealing SR300,000 from the accounts of several clients.
The bank, which does not want its name published, reported the matter to the police before the unscrupulous accountant, an Arab expatriate, could leave the country.
The matter was brought to the notice of the bank’s authorities when some customers complained to the bank’s regional manager about the mysterious disappearance of large sums of money from their accounts.
Subsequent inquiries uncovered the fraudulent practice of a particular accountant who had been absent from the bank for 10 days.
He was reportedly attempting to obtain forged travel documents so he could get out of the country before the police caught up with him.
This is not the first time a bank employee has stolen money from clients’ accounts, according to Muhammad Al-Madani, an employee at another bank.
Al-Madani attributed the criminal practice to two reasons.
Either it is because the secret code issued to each employee so they can deal with transactions is used by more than one of them (against standard regulations), or the internal supervision in the banks is very poor.
