A man questioned Milimani court on why he was being sued for Sh402,000 that he was asked to withdraw from his Co-operative bank account using his mobile phone.
Jared Atembo, said that he had received a message in his phone asking him to access the money.
“I received a text message directing me to ring *667# in order to access the money,” he testified before Chief Magistrate Wendy Kagendo.
He claimed that even though the texts were sent to his mobile phone, he was horrified to learn that he had stolen the money.
“Because I had been gambling, I assumed I had won Lotto, Tatua Tatu, or Shabiki.com (lotteries) when I received the money,” Atambo told the magistrate.
He argued that because he had been betting when he received the text message requesting access to the account, he had no reason to be skeptical of himself.
Atambo, who is accused of theft, committed the offense between May 27 and July 2022.
According to the prosecution, Henry Thuita, a resident of the United States, is the account holder.
Thuita informed the bank that a fraudulent mobile money transaction had been made from his account after returning from the US in July.
Investigations showed that when he relocated to the US, his mobile phone number became inactive.
Later, Atambo purchased the mobile number from Safaricom, a telco company.
The accused allegedly used the number *667# to access the bank account and siphoned money in two months.
Atambo was informed by Magistrate Kagendo that his justification amounted to a not-guilty plea.
She gave him the option of a Sh500, 000 bond or a Sh200, 000 cash bail.
