Bangirana Stole Sh74m â€" Witness

By Solomon Muyita Former senior Police officer and court bailiff Pauline Bangirana (pictured) stole sh74m of the Uganda High Court, a witness told court on Thursday. Testifying before court, Asaph Ruhinda, 44, a High Court Registrar in Masaka, said Bangirana’s license as a court bailiff was suspended after she stole the money and mishandled a case. He said he assigned her, through her Pamba Agencies Court Bailiffs and Auctioneers, a duty to sell a cotton ginnery in Lira belonging to Uganda Spinning Mills. The sale was intended to recover money owed to Placid Waliga, their debtor, but Bangirana sold it and failed to account for some of the money. Placid had earlier won a civil suit against Spinning Mills in the High Court which ordered the selling of their ginnery for over sh300m to pay off the debt. “She was paid sh86m by the buyer, but paid about sh6m to the complainant’s lawyers and about sh5.6m to Placid (the beneficiary), which was also irregular, leaving the balance unaccounted for,” Ruhinda said. He said bailiffs are answerable to the court during the execution of their duties, but Bangirana did not report to court after she recovered the first installment. Court heard that it is Placid that got information that she had been paid a portion of the money. “We communicated to her as a court to explain, but she did not respond and the judgement creditor wanted his money. She does not get a cost before she reports back and file her bills of cost for taxation by the court,” he added. Ends