Newbury Halifax targetted in £2m scam

The operation involved planting a high-tech computer bug in the £2,036,500 conspiracy which ran from July to September 2012, at Halifax branches in Newbury, Slough, and Camden, the court was told.
The central criminal court heard that bank workers Joe Mariathas and Neil Bautista, both aged 22, and 27-year-old Tai Hulbert-Thomas, installed devices on colleagues’ computers to steal account details and make fraudulent transfers. James Thacker,
prosecuting, said: “'The same rogue device in the Slough fraud was used in the Newbury fraud.”
A similar bug was used to make the bogus transfers in the north London branch, it is claimed, where bank clerk Mawli Thurairajah, aged 30, allowed Mr Mariathas access to the computer system.
The conspiracy began to unravel, it is claimed, when the manager at Camden was made aware of a suspicious transaction and in total 25 accounts had received fraudulent credits to the sum of £804,000.
Mr Thacker said: “All the transfers had taken place between 6.30am and 8.20am, hours when the branch was closed.
They had all take place through the same work station in an interview room in the Camden Town branch.”
Mr Mariathas, of Stonewall, East Ham, was arrested on October 10, 2012, and has confessed to taking part in the scam.
When officers searched his house they then found a rogue USB device in his Audi TT, the court heard.
Two ghost key-stroke loggers were also found containing passwords and log-in details of Halifax staff.
On 2 August 2012 the Halifax branch manager in Slough was made aware of a suspicious transaction of £50,000 into a customer's account, and Mr Thacker said a total of 13 accounts had received fraudulent credits totalling £605,000.
In September the same year, a total of £627,500 in bogus payments was made at the Halifax branch in Newbury.
Mr Hulbert-Thomas, of Carlton Road, Oxford, allegedly made the fraudulent payments after installing a device to
harvest employee log-in details and make fraudulent transfers.
Mr Bautista, of Northumberland Road, Maidenhead, is accused of making fraudulent payments totalling £605,000 and of allowing another person to install a device on the bank's computer.
Mr Hulbert-Thomas denies conspiracy to defraud and two counts of fraud by abuse of position; Mr Bautista and Mr Thurairajah, of Moelyn Mews, Harrow, both deny conspiracy to defraud and one count of fraud by abuse of position.
Mr Thurairajah also denies a single charge of making fraudulent payments totalling £804,000.
Mr Mariathas, of Stonewall, East Ham, has admitted conspiracy to defraud and fraud by abuse of position.

The trial continues.