The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has uncovered a scheme where two employees allegedly stole Ksh 15 million from a real estate company.
In a statement, the DCI the two suspects Judy Muringe Mugo, 41, and Catherine Waithera Ruiru, 26 worked as a marketing officer and Receptionist respectively for Goshens Real Estate based in Kiambu’s Ruaka township.
The fraud was reported at DCI Kiambaa offices on January 23, 2024, by the company Director Andrew Kirumba.
The first suspect Judy Mugo was accused of duping Goshens Real Estate tenants into disregarding the paybill and bank account provided on their lease agreement forms while remitting monthly rent, and instead insisted on them using the company office line which she manned.
Judy declared the company pay bill and bank account “no longer functional”, before directing that payments be channeled to the OPPO phone and number that the company issued to her for marketing purposes.
“After receiving the hundreds of thousands in rent, water bills, and other payable services through the office line, the 41-year-old would then transfer the money to her two personal phone numbers, thereafter transacting through mobile banking to her two accounts held at Family Bank,” DCI revealed.
To cover her trail and ensure that the management did not notice any irregularities, Judy would then conspire with the receptionist Catherine Waithera, who manipulated numbers in the company’s system to indicate that no tenants had any arrears. This went on from June 2022 to January 2024.
Upon receiving the report, detectives commenced investigations by recording statements of all the affected tenants, then sought orders from a Kiambu court to investigate the concerned banks and mobile money transactions.
“When the mobile transaction and bank statements were obtained, it was confirmed that indeed the marketing officer would channel the rent received through the office line to her numbers 0705736*** and 0741***559, then later channel the same to her Family bank account numbers 042000007*** and 052000008***,” DCI revealed.
The detectives also noted that Mugo transferred Sh3,442,200 to the receptionist through her mobile number 0712***840 and KCB account number 1250143*** within the period in question.
The DCI also established that Judy who was earning Ksh30,000, on April 14, 2023, channeled Ksh750,000 to AUTOCAD Motors bank account, which AUTOCAD confirmed to have been payment for a Toyota Harrier Reg. No. KBH 252S was bought from their yard.
A search in the NTSA database confirmed that Judy was the legitimate owner of the car until January 25, 2024, a date when Kiambaa detectives summoned her to their offices. To defeat justice, Judy transferred the vehicle to Andronicus Mbuthia Kamakia.
The DCI detectives filed miscellaneous application and also sought orders to impound and detain the vehicle and treat it as proceeds of crime, thus preventing its sale or use as collateral in obtaining loans from any financial institution.
The orders executed on March 6, 2024, also saw both suspects’ phones and the desktop used by the receptionist confiscated, and the same have since been submitted to the forensic cybercrime unit for detailed analysis.
An audit report in the well-orchestrated scheme revealed that the company lost a total of Sh15,633,147.
