Cashier from Tilehurst jailed for fraud
Woman used as "puppet" by £20 million bank gang, court hears
A BANK cashier from Tilehurst has been jailed for helping a £20 million fraud gang steal more than £900,000 from customers.
Twenty-six-year-old Halifax Bank of Scotland worker Ester Parris and another woman - Oluwatosin Sade-Akinlade, aged 23, from Plumstead, south London - passed secret details of wealthy clients' account to criminal associates.
The fraudsters used the details provided by Parris to plunder £692,000 from high-value accounts, and stole £225,000 using those furnished by Sade-Akinlade, Southwark Crown Court heard yesterday(Monday).
It is estimated that the same criminal network fleeced £20m from customers at 11 different High Street banks.
Parris was jailed for 21 months and Sade-Akinlade for 18 months after they each admitted committing fraud between January 1 2007 and August 21, 2008.
Mark Paltenghi, prosecuting, told the court that the two women did not know each other, and had been independently recruited by members of the same fraud gang.
Parris began working at the Reading branch of HBOS in March 2007, and began abusing her position as a cashier to pass on clients' details around five months later, the court heard.
As a result of her actions, said Mr Paltenghi, six separate accounts were raided, and a total of £692,449 stolen.
Sade-Akinlade started work at the bank's Fleet Street branch in August 2006, later transferring to the Pimlico branch.
Thanks to the information she gave to the fraudsters, £225,000 was taken from accounts, the judge was told.
The court heard that in October 2007, £3,500 was paid into her personal account from a compromised RBS account.
Both cashiers were arrested following internal HBOS investigations, with Parris telling police she had agreed to supply account details to the criminals because she and her family had been threatened.
Timothy Banks, for Parris, said his client had been placed under severe pressure by an ex-boyfriend to give account details to others and she had agreed, “naively” thinking it would be a one-off.
Claire Harden, representing Sade-Akinlade, told the court that both of the defendants had been taken advantage of.
She said: “This is a pitiable case. Your Honour has before you two puppets that have been used by other people: picked out because of their age probably by people they were friends with, and manipulated.”
Judge Anthony Leonard QC told them: “Every customer at every bank relies on banks holding information about his or her account in complete secrecy. The information you were able to call up from the computer records of the bank placed you both in positions of high trust.
“Any breakdown of that arrangement places in jeopardy the trust between a bank and its customers. These offences are significantly aggravated by the fact that there was a gross breach of trust.”
Various other members of the gang have already either pleaded guilty to similar counts or been convicted after trial.
