London:
Sunny Sodha, a 27-year-old Indian origin employee of the Barclays bank in Leicester has been awarded a 1-year jail sentence for dishonestly fleecing two customer accounts of over 68,000 pounds.
Sodha, a personal banker at Barclays, carried out a sophisticated scam by moving the cash to a number of bogus accounts, the Leicester Crown Court was told.
Victoria Rose, prosecuting lawyer, said, "He transferred money from two customers' savings accounts into their personal current account and opened a new account in a false name and transferred the money into that account".
On both occasions the cash was then filtered into eight other accounts.
He then wiped out various transaction details as the money quickly disappeared, according to reports from Leicester.
Rose said that it could only be proved that he received 7,000 pounds, which Judge Mark Rogers ordered it be confiscated to compensate the bank.
Sodha admitted to two counts of theft amounting to 68,250 pounds and received a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work.
Felicity Gerry, lawyer for Sodha, said, "He's a young man who lives with his parents. He went to university and did well at the bank. He's now trying to set up a restaurant business because he recognises he'll never be an employee. He's very sorry".
Judge Rogers told Sodha, "Until now you were a man of good character. You've lost many employment opportunities as a result of what you've done which will be a punishment far longer than anything I can impose".