A case in which a 70-year-old widow has sued Faulu Bank and an auctioneer for allegedly defrauding her of Sh150 million property in Huruma, Nairobi will be heard from November 6.
Alice Wanjiru Wamwea is battling to save the said property after it was auctioned by the bank through Antique Auctions to recover a Sh65 million debt.
She says the bank falsely accused her of failure to offset the loan before auctioning the property.
Ms Wamwea accuses Faulu Bank of a well-calculated scheme to defraud her the seven-storey building located in Jonsaga, Huruma Estate.
She bought the property at Sh16 million in 1991 while it was a three-storey building at Sh16 million and added four more storeys.
“Since I wanted to develop the property, I charged the property and took a loan of Sh65 million from Faulu Microfinance Bank to do final touches on the building,” she states in documents filed in court.
WITHOUT HER KNOWLEDGE
She says at one time, she discovered the bank had debited her Sh6 million which was done by some bank officials without her knowledge.
Ms. Wamwea says at one time a teller from the bank called her to inform her she was stupid for signing property transfer form without reading it, a transfer she was unaware of.
She wrote to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations’ Banking Fraud Investigations Department to complain about Faulu’s misconduct.
BFID investigated the matter and charged six people and a company over the fraud.
The suspects are Mugweru Mwangi, Kefa Onsongo, Waweru Maina, Paul Mwangi, Esther Muthoni Njoroge, Tom Mboya Jaseme and the firm Oksama Investment Supplies Ltd and the auctioneers.
They were charged with conspiracy to defraud her the said property by means of fraudulent auction and forging her signature in the loan application forms. The criminal case is still pending while the civil suit will now be heard on November 6.
In March 2017, an auction advert was circulated by Antique Auctions under instructions from the bank to allegedly recover Sh73 million when the statements indicated she only had an outstanding loan of Sh7 million.
Antique Auctions went ahead and sold the property to Oksama Investment Supplies Limited, which Ms. Wamwea is now pursuing to be reversed to her.
High court judge David Majanja on Thursday said he needs time to familiarise himself with the case before hearing resumes.
Lady justice Mary Kasango was hearing the case but she recused herself after Ms. Wamwea filed an application for her to withdraw.
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