Ali Abess, who is the complainant in the alleged $500,000 theft matter involving his former employee Randa Skeikey, has testified at the High Court before Justice Alhaji Momoh Jah Stevens. According to witness Abess, the accused is his former employee whom he employed on 12th October 2012 as Regional Manager in Kenema. He added that the accused also worked at his head office in Freetown on different occasions. He told the court that he had planned to travel out of the country on 14th August 2018, and prior to the journey, he invited the accused who was staying in Kenema to come to Freetown and take charge of his business office and residence in Aberdeen.
The complainant said two days before he left Sierra Leone, the accused was already in Freetown, where he introduced her to his friend, Ibrahim Swarray. Abess said he told the accused that he has a business dealing with Swarray and there might be some financial needs, and that when such needs arise, they should both communicate with him for further directives. The witness said between 25th August and 7th September 2018, he received a call from the accused that Swarray had requested her to disburse $550,000, stressing that he was in Lebanon when he received the call.
He maintained that after talking to the accused, he immediately received a call from Swarray, who he said informed him that he’d cancelled the $550,000 request and only needed $140,000. The witness said he immediately told the accused not to disburse the said $550,000 and also informed his friend to contact the accused. He said during their conversations with the accused, he said the $140,000 will be made available the following day, and showed her how to retrieve the money.
Abess said after receiving a WhatsApp message from accused Skeikey requesting for the said money, he then directed her to go to his secret safe, where he had $642,000, and some amount of pound sterling. He furthered that he only told the accused to take $140,000, but was surprised to notice when he came back home that the accused had carted away $500,000 out of $642,000.
He said when he asked the accused about the missing money, she didn’t say anything to him and ended up leaving his residence. The state alleged that between 25th August and 7th September 2018, Randa Skeikey stole $500,000 from Ali Abess at Bintumani Drive in Aberdeen. She was charged with the offences of larceny by servant and larceny in a dwelling house contrary to Section 17 (a) of the Larceny Act of 1916.
The accused is presently on bail.
By Mohamed J. Bah