Ms Ann Wambui and Mr Anthony Mwangi at a Nairobi court on October 26, where they were charged with hacking and stealing Sh25m from the bank. PHOTO | SHEILA MUTUA | K24 DIGITALTwo second-year students at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) have been charged at Milimani Law Courts with stealing Sh25 million NCBA (K) Bank through hacking.
The two also faced another count of conspiracy to defraud the bank of Sh190 million.
Anthony Mwangi and Ann Wambui were accused of committing the offence on or before October 20, 2020, jointly with others not before the court.
Particulars of the offence are that they conspired to steal Sh25, 400,000 from NCBA Upper Hill’s head office.
Through lawyer Arunda Oichoe, the accused made an application for reasonable cash bail, saying that they are only university students.
“They are students at JKUAT and are to start their examination. Wanyoike is 21 years and Wambui is 23 years,” said Arunda.
They sought 100,000 cash bail with their lawyer telling the court that one of the accused had taken it upon himself to inform the bank that their system had loopholes that could be exploited.
“The alleged crimes happened on an IT platform, particularly a mobile phone,” said Oichoe.
It is Mwangi who informed the bank that there was a system breach through Twitter and was subsequently summoned to appear at the bank for an inquiry.
“They presented themselves before the bank and we were not arrested,” said Oichoe.
The prosecution said that the proposal of a 100,000 cash bail is too lenient and urged the magistrate to take into account the amount involved.
The duo was released on Sh500,000 cash bail or bond of Sh2 million.
The case has been slated for pre-trial in November.
