Four people charged alongside oil tycoon Yagnesh Devani with the theft of fuel worth more than Sh1.5 billion at the Kipevu Oil Refinery in Mombasa in 2008 were on Monday acquitted by a Magistrate Court.

Milimani Magistrate Zainab Abdul acquitted former Finance Manager of Triton Company Mahindra Pathak , William Mundia, KCB employees; Samson Waka, Peter Muthungu and Triton Petroleum Company for lack of sufficient evidence against them.

The four were tried in the absence of Devani after he fled Kenya in 2008 and only came back after losing an appeal in the UK seeking to stop his extradition. The bank employees were accused of failing to prevent the theft of Sh1.9 billion belonging to KCB.

Devani was charged last month and denied the charges against him and was freed after posting cash bail of Sh1 million.

According to the charge sheet,  jointly with others before court, he stole 2,000 metric tonnes of Automotive Gas Oil valued at US$ 215,934, the property of KCB between on  April 23 and December 4, 2008 at Kipevu Oil Storage Facility in Mombasa county,.

He was also accused of stealing  418.134 metric tons of motor spirit premium valued at US$ 438,031.10, the property of Kenya Commercial Bank between May 15, 2008 and December 4, 2008 at Kipevu oil storage facility within Mombasa County, jointly with others not before Court.

The accused persons who were acquitted had been charged with conspiring to defraud KCB by fraudulently discounting Triton petroleum of invoices amounting to 12M dollars (Ksh 1.9 billion) in breach of the limit approved and the conditions imposed by the board of directors of KCB and when in actual fact no oil was sold by Triton to total Kenya by falsely representing the said invoices.

In her ruling the Magistrate noted that  KCB ledgers were never availed as evidence to show that money was actually debited from the banks account.

Most of the witnesses who testified were employees of the bank. The Investigating officer in the case also said he could not pinpoint the specifics of conspiracy in respect to the accused persons.

The Magistrate in her ruling said it is not in dispute that their existed a customer client relationship between KCB and Triton. Yagnesh at the time in question was the majority shareholder of Triton petroleum.

She also noted that the evidence by prosecution case is that invoices were discounted in favor of Triton while Yagnesh canceled the same.

“None of the witnesses testified to the effect that at the time the process of invoice discounting was ongoing, the KCB employees knew the process was canceled…Even if money was stolen, the remedy for recovering the same is elsewhere and not through a criminal trial. This is so because the money was credited to a customer’s account as a result of a business relationship,” ruled the Magistrate.