Nairobi Pastor Charged With Trying To Steal Ksh855K From Bank
Pastor Peter Irungu Mwangi faces six charges, including forging a national identity card, uttering a forged document to a banker, stealing from a bank, and attempted theft.
Marvin Chege 
A pastor based in Nairobi has been charged with stealing Ksh420,000 from a local bank during the festive season after he tried to clean out Ksh855,000 from an account using a fake identity card.
Appearing before senior principal magistrate Esther Kimilu at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi, the Buruburu-based pastor maintained his innocence after he was accused of impersonating another individual to withdraw the stolen amount.
Pastor Peter Irungu Mwangi faces six charges, including forging a national identity card, uttering a forged document to a banker, stealing from a bank, and attempted theft.
An image of the Milimani Law Courts. /FILE
Prosecutor Anne Munyua also accused him of using the newly acquired fake document to withdraw another Ksh435,000, which proved unsuccessful as he was arrested following a mismatch between his image and what the bank had on their system.
According to the prosecution, he embedded his image on the victim's ID before presenting it to the teller and also forged his signature to withdraw the money. The two withdrawals were committed on December 21 and 24.
Mwangi denied the charges saying he was incapable of committing such an act of sin and was released on a cash bail of Ksh400,000 after Kimilu denied his initial request to be released on bond. The case is set to be mentioned for a pre-trial hearing on January 11, 2023.
During his court appearance, the pastor was accompanied by followers from his Pentecostal church in Eastlands, who came to show their support.
The saga comes just days after detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) unmasked the mastermind of the infamous Mulot SIM swap syndicate which has been impersonating senior government officials and recently depleted an MP's bank account.
In their statement, the DCI exposed the mastermind, one David Mutai alias Hillary Langat Matindwet, a dangerous criminal who has previously served time in prison and has several cases and warrants of arrest hanging around his neck.
This follows comprehensive investigations by the detectives based at the elite Crime Research & Intelligence Bureau, who unravelled the identity of the de facto leader of the criminal enterprise, responsible for the SIM swap scam.
This is a heinous act in which phone scammers hijack a victim’s cell phone number and use it to gain access to sensitive personal data and bank accounts through the mobile banking applications available on mobile phones.
