A man who allegedly transferred Sh300,000 from her mother’s M-Pesa account to himself before using the money to pay his debtor is facing cybercrime-related charges.
At the Makadara Law Courts, Anthony Wachira was charged with intentionally withholding a message delivered erroneously contrary to section 35 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act of 2018.
Wachira is accused of intentionally detaining the electronic payment of Sh300,000 belonging to his mother Anne Njeri, which was delivered to him by error via M-pesa at Pioneer Estate in Nairobi on October 24, 2023.
The accused person had borrowed his mother’s mobile phone to call his sister who lives in the United Kingdom but instead called his friend.
After using the phone, he returned to his mother and left.
Njeri later received a call from one of her workers asking for money.
She accessed her bank account using the phone, and she found that Sh300, 000 had been withdrawn she proceeded to the bank where she was informed that the money had been withdrawn to her M-pesa account on the same day.
Njeri proceeded to an Mpesa customer care shop and she was informed that part of the money – Sh100, 000 had been sent to a woman via M-pesa and the rest had been transferred to her son’s M-pesa.
The complainant reported the matter at the Buruburu police station and the two mobile phone numbers that received the money from her were blocked by Safaricom to prevent further crimes.
On October 25, 2023, the two – Wachira and the woman he had sent his mother’s money to arrived at the same Mpesa customer care shop seeking help in unblocking their mobile phones, and police Ms Njeri was informed.
Police arrived at the shop and arrested the two.
The woman admitted that she had received the money from Wachira and he was paying her after she spent her money to bail him at the Makadara Law Courts where he had been charged this year.
Some amount of the money had already been credited to Ms Njeri’s M-Pesa account.
The woman was turned over to a prosecution witness against Wachira after explaining what happened.
Wachira denied the charges before Principal Magistrate Erick Mutunga and claimed that it was her mother who sent him the money to make some payments.
He was released on a cash bail of Sh100,000.
The case will be mentioned on February 20, 2024 before hearing starts on May 14, 2024.
