Rwanda National Police

Police in Rwamagana District foiled a bank robbery and arrested a suspected main-brain identified as Emmanuel Shumbusho.

Shumbusho was arrested in the act on Thursday as he attempted to make a doubt withdrawal using a mobile banking system and withdrawing from the teller, Police said.

According to the Police, Shumbusho entered one of the commercial bank branches in Kigabiro Sector and served the teller with a cheque of Rwf3, 450, 000, which he wanted to withdraw.

In the process of cashing the cheque, Shumbusho withdrew the same amount of money using the pull system of mobile banking on his mobile money account, said Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Theobard Kanamugire, the Police spokesperson for the Eastern region.

“After the teller processed and gave him the money, the banking system also sent a signal to the teller that the money has been withdrawn using the mobile pull system. The bank clandestinely called the police, and he was arrested at the scene,” CIP Kanamugire said.

Immediately, Shumbusho had already wired Rwf1.9 million to someone called only identified as Faridah.

The spokesperson explained that with the help of the telecom company that Shumbusho is subscribed to; all the money was traced, recovered and returned to the bank.

He said that this is a “typical cybercrime act since the suspect attempted to make a double withdraw with hope that he could beat the system.”

The suspect is currently detained at Kigabiro police station as his dossier is being processed to be forwarded to prosecution.

Early last month, police met with banks ad telecoms and formed a synergy geared towards curbing cybercrimes.

The synergies have since enhanced information sharing to collectively assess cyber security threats and confront them in a stronger manner.

Records indicate that between 2016 and 2017, six intuitions in the country registered cases of cyber crimes.