ELN: A female was sentenced on Tuesday (27th September 2011) at Southwark Crown Court to 32 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years and 130 hours community service following a theft and fraud that took place in Commercial Road, E14.
Ketsia Mundeke MPO, 34years of Becontree Avenue, Dagenham was convicted on the 6th September 2011 of four counts of fraud by misrepresentation and theft of a bank card.
On Thursday 27th January 2011, police were contacted by the 89yr old victim in a distressed state reporting that she had lost her bank card.
Following numerous enquiries with the victim and her bank, it became apparent that the last place it was used was the cashpoint at Tesco, Commercial Road, E14. CCTV was checked and a black female was seen to use the cashpoint at the time in question.
Further enquiries with the bank identified four transactions, totalling £900, withdrawn from the same machine. The victim stated she took out £100 with the help of a cashier the week before as she suffers with mobility problems and cannot use the machine properly.
CCTV showed MPO with the victim, MPO walking off with the bank card and within minutes going back to the machine and drawing out more money. Then over a period of 3 other occasions, took out more money. All were caught on CCTV.
MPO was arrested and the card found at her home. MPO was charged with theft of the card and four counts of fraud.
Officer in the case PC Matthew Purcell said:” This is a case in which the police could have simply reported the card as lost in the street and advised the victim to contact her bank, but by thorough investigation this female has been bought to justice. Our advice to elderly residents would be to try to use the cash machines inside your bank and when entering your PIN number cover your hand so the details entered cannot be seen”.