A former employee at the Queen’s bank has been jailed for defrauding customers out of more than £1.2million to help fund a gambling addiction.
Worker Luke Williams abused his position at Coutts to access customers’ personal details, which he then passed on to three other criminals, a London court was told.
They then posed as the customers and tried to access their accounts – in some cases succeeding.
Funds were transferred to third party accounts and then quickly withdrawn, UK Finance, which oversees the banking sector, said.
The four men were sentenced on Monday at Southwark Crown Court, which heard that the attempted fraud on the bank totalled £2.4million — of which £1.2million was prevented when Coutts spotted the scam.
The gang were jailed for a total of more than seven years. Williams, 32, of Haywards Heath, Sussex, was given a four-year sentence for committing fraud by abuse of position.
His associates Ricky Burgess, 30, of Leigh-on-Sea and Francis Buckman, 34, of Southend-on-Sea, received a two-year and 14-month prison sentence respectively for conspiracy to defraud.
Michael Sonowo, 36, of Havering, was handed a conditional discharge as well as a community order for 12 months. He was also ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work for committing money laundering offences.
The case was investigated by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), a specialist City of London police unit.
Detective Constable Jeremy Boxall, who investigated the case for the DCPCU, said: “This case shows that anyone who is caught abusing the trust placed in them by their employer will be punished along with those who try to help them,”.
Coutts said: “We are unable to comment in any detail on the case but we have fully co-operated with the police investigation.
“The bank’s controls identified the situation, the appropriate action was taken and no client has been financially impacted.”
All bank victims were refunded.
Natwest-owned Coutts which is more than three decades old, is one of the most exclusive private banks in the world.
Its high profile customers include the Queen, David Beckham and singer Elton John.
