An Indian-origin employee of UK's Barclays bank has been jailed for 14 months for fraudulently siphoning off nearly pound 17,000 from the accounts of two customers.
Leicester-based Ajay Gaindher, 26, took pound 12,450 from the savings account of a retired couple. He also obtained pound 4,500 from unauthorised overdrafts on another customer's account.
Gaindher pleaded guilty at the Leicester court to fraudulently obtaining the cash and concealing criminal property between April and June last year.
Sentencing Gaindher, Judge Michael Pert told him: "You were in a trusted position and you abused that trust in order to divert funds on more than 40 occasions through a network of accounts. These offences strike at the heart of the banking system. We have to be able to trust people to whom we've entrusted our money."
Mark Bishop, the prosecuting lawyer, said when the retired couple found out that thousands of pounds had been looted from their account it caused them stress and worry.
They felt frightened and vulnerable as it was part of their life savings.
Barclays refunded the full amount, reports from Leicester said.
Gaindher used a complicated transfer process to take the money in a series of transactions.
He claimed he had been approached by others to act dishonestly, but most of the cash went on paying his credit card debts.
Isobel Wilson, lawyer for Gaindher, said: "He'd worked at the bank since March 2005 and he lost his job in July 2009 as a result of these offences. Initially, he was approached by associates. I'm not saying he was under duress. The initial idea was put to him and then he went on to transfer the money to pay his debts."
Wilson added: "Both his parents suffer from ill health and he'd reduced his hours of work to look after them. He was struggling financially. He's deeply ashamed of his actions."
After the hearing, a spokeswoman for Barclays said: "We have a zero tolerance policy towards staff fraud."
