When Martha Lepcha, 32, who runs a canteen in Olakha, made her friend carry out her bank transactions for almost a year on her behalf, little did she know that she was being deceived.

Her friend, Tshering (name changed), 22, forged her signatures and withdrew Nu 142,500 (S$4,289.77) from November last year till this October. Martha found about the embezzlement only this month when she visited the Bank of Bhutan ltd (BoBL).

Martha then filed a case with the Thimphu police station on October 7 and the accused was arrested.

'I used to let her deposit my money because I trusted her. I was saving the money for my daughter from my ex-husband. Now I am ruined,' said Martha.

Martha said that she hasn't withdrawn any amount since last year. The accused also issued two cheques in Martha's name, which she never received, but used by Tshering to withdraw the money from banks forging signatures. The checkbooks were issued last year in November and this year in June.

The statement also stated that signatures for the checkbooks requisitions were exactly the same as that of Martha.

According to police, Tshering confessed that she forged signatures of Martha and issued cheques in the name of her friends and made them withdraw and that her friends didn't have any clue that the signatures were forged.

Martha said that Tshering used to hand over the receipts of the amount deposited with the bank but once she didn't give her the receipt for Nu 22,000 saying that she misplaced it. 'I believed her and didn't make an issue.'

There was a shortage of Nu 1,000 later, said Martha. 'After that, I couldn't trust her anymore and stopped giving her money. But never expected that she could go to that extend.'

Martha said, 'The bank is also at fault because they should have known as she has been doing it for almost a year. Moreover the signatures didn't match when I went through it.'

The bank manager, Tharpo Dukpa said that BoBL came to know about the incident only when Martha visited the bank to withdraw some cash. 'The signatures were exactly the same as Martha's and it was very difficult to differentiate,' he said.

The case would be charge-sheeted to the court by next week, said police.

By Kinga Dema