The Anti-Corruption Court has sentenced an Equity Bank credit officer to one year in prison after finding him guilty of facilitating the fraudulent transfer of more than Shs52 million from a customer’s account.
Marvin Ijuka, a Credit Officer at Equity Bank, was on Monday convicted by His Worship Mujuni Paul and sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment for corruption-related offences.
Court heard that between June and October 2019, Ijuka and his co-accused, Caroline Kamwebaze, abused their positions at the bank to process a series of unauthorized transfers from customer accounts.
One of the affected accounts belonged to Kobusingye Mercy, proprietor of Victory Junior Primary and Nursery School, who lost Shs52.75 million through the fraudulent transactions.
Prosecution told court that the money was transferred into the account of one Tumwiine Michael using journal vouchers, documents ordinarily used to facilitate inter-account transfers. The accused falsely indicated that the transactions had been authorized by the account holder.
The fraud came to light after Kobusingye noticed suspicious deductions from her account and reported the matter to bank management.
Subsequent investigations and internal audits established that Ijuka and Kamwebaze had processed the transfers without the required authorization.
The duo was arrested and charged with causing financial loss.
During the trial, Kamwebaze entered into a plea bargain agreement and was convicted accordingly.
Ijuka, however, opted to contest the charges but later absconded from court proceedings in February 2026 before presenting his defence. A warrant of arrest was subsequently issued after he failed to return to court.
The court later ruled that his continued absence had rendered it impracticable for the trial to proceed in his presence and allowed the case to continue to judgment.
Delivering judgment on June 16, 2026, the court convicted Ijuka in absentia and sentenced him to one year in prison.
Under the Anti-Corruption Act, he was also barred from holding public office for 10 years from the date of conviction.
Although Ijuka remains at large and is still wanted under an active arrest warrant, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said the conviction demonstrates that suspects cannot evade justice by absconding from court proceedings.
The case was prosecuted by Abigail Agaba, Chief State Attorney in the Anti-Corruption Department of the Office of the DPP.
