Cashier faces raps for stealing P600,000

A RETIRED police officer and his wife sued their former employee for stealing, for failure to transfer more than P600,000 from one bank account to another and allegedly using it for personal use.

Records from the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 16 showed that Eva Catherine T. Guzarem, of Mintal in Tugbok District, Davao City, is charged with six counts of qualified theft based on the complaint of retired general Isidro Lapeña, former Police Regional Office (PRO)-Davao director, and his wife Rebecca.

The total bail recommended for Guzarem temporary liberty is set at P484,000.

In his resolution, Prosecutor Jose Garcia Jr. found probable cause to hold the accused for trial.

The complainants are the registered owners of R.T Lapena Enterprises, Airport View Petron Service Station, Airport View Convenience Store, Airport View Petron Car Car Center, Davao Traveler's Inn, and Cavalier Travel and Tours, located on C.P. Garcia Highway in Davao City.

In their joint-affidavit, the spouses said they have hired Guzarem as head cashier and property controller in 2007.

They said they noticed that their business was "having cash flow problem" in 2010, so they decided to engage the services of Editha Esperanza, a certified public accountant, for an audit.

They said it was found out after the audit that Guzarem allegedly failed to deposit 261 remittances from the field cashiers amounting to P4,189,426.84 and misappropriated P642,778.30 consisting of six fund transfer transactions.

Garcia, in his resolution, said Esperanza conducted a financial audit on the two of the six establishments -- Airport View Petron Service Station and Airport View Car Care Center.

Garcia stated that Esperanza found out that a total of P642,778.30 was missing when the respondent made a fund transfer from the Banco de Oro account to Metrobank account on June 29, 2009; August 6, 9 and 28; November 6 and 9; September 13; and September 27, 2010.

In her counter-affidavit, Guzarem denied all the accusations.

Guzarem said only two of the several business ventures of the Lapeñas were audited.

"Had she audited the others, she would have realized that no funds were missing," Guzarem stated in her counter-affidavit, adding she failed to present any evidence since she no longer has access to the records.

Garcia said Guzarem stated that she admitted to have made fund transfers such as withdrawal of money from BDO and transferred the same amount to Metrobank.

Garcia added that Guzarem said there were deposit slips and vouchers to support her claim but failed to present any of them.

However, Garcia said there was a grave abuse of confidence committed by the accused.

"Being the head cashier of the complainants' enterprise, she was entrusted with a wide degree of confidence which had been existing for a long period of time. Her responsibility [is] similar to a bank teller wherein she had the physical not the juridical possession of the money," Garcia said.

The RTC Branch 16, where the case was raffled off, is yet to issue an arrest warrant against Guzarem.