What At Liberty: Staph |
A
trusted HSBC employee has been jailed for helping to transfer £67,000
belonging to her bank's customers into the hands of criminals.
Liberty
Staph, 27, of Broadley Street, St. John's Wood received 18 months
imprisonment after she pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by
abuse of position.
Some
of the money was withdrawn by Adam Chelfat, 21, of Albion Avenue,
Nine Elms and he was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended
for 18 months, after he admitted two counts of money laundering.
Detectives
from the Metropolitan Police's Fraud and Linked Crime Online (FALCON)
unit began an investigation in March, 2016 after three of the bank’s
customers had money removed from their accounts without their
knowledge.
An
internal investigation by HSBC identified that Staph had interacted
with all three customers shortly before the withdrawals were made.
Staph,
who worked in a HSBC contact centre and in a HSBC branch in central
London, accessed the customers’ confidential data required to make
changes to facilitate access to the accounts.
Greedy: Adam Chelfat |
The
security on the accounts was subsequently overridden and Chelfat
received money taken from one of the HSBC customers into his bank
account.
The
money was withdrawn by Chelfat as cash or foreign currency within a
couple of days and then passed on to another account.
He
was also ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work when
sentenced.
In
total, more than £67,000 was transferred out of the bank accounts of
the three victims.
A
few days after each fraud had been completed Staph received payments
into her bank account, totalling £8,000.
All
three victims were refunded in full by the bank.
Detective
Constable Mark Cresswell, of the Falcon unit, said:
“Staph abused her position to fraudulently obtain money from HSBC customers who she was supposed to be helping.
“Staph abused her position to fraudulently obtain money from HSBC customers who she was supposed to be helping.
“Her
criminal actions were uncovered thanks to a comprehensive internal
investigation by HSBC.
“The
prison sentence received by Staph should act as a deterrent to any
other bank employees considering any similar actions.”
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