At the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court this morning Makeleta Malu, a Westpac Bank Customer officer pleaded not guilty to the embezzlement and theft of over $10,000 pa'anga from a bank customer's account.

The young woman is charged with three counts of embezzling $17,966.02 from the account of Dexing Construction Company, knowingly using forged documents and theft committed on October 20, 2008 to satisfy her own needs.

The accused pleaded not guilty to all of the charges before Chief Justice Anthony Ford and will appear for the start of her trial on

July 27.

Her counsel Clive Edwards elected that the accused be tried before a jury.

Crown Prosecutor Semisi Lutui anticipated the trial would run for a week.