APA - London (United Kingdom) A Nigerian, Ruth Akinyemi, a bank clerk with Barclays Bank in the United Kingdom, was Monday jailed for 18 months at the Old Bailey in London for "stealing customers’ personal details, including dates of birth and account passwords, thereby aiding fraudsters fleece customers out of £500,000.

Charges against the 23-year old Nigerian also revealed how she specialized in ransacking over £250,000 from wealthy customers’ accounts.

Akinyemi, a resident of Enfield, North-East London, consistently passed on account numbers to gang members who went on to make more than £500,000 in a wide-ranging conspiracy.

Akinyemi, who has an Economics degree and no previous convictions, was paid only £3,000 for her help, according to prosecutors.

She had joined Barclays Bank as a 17-year old cashier and was promoted to customer-coordinator at the Enfield Branch.

The first customer to be targeted lost £100,000 but did not realize the money was missing.

Armed with the insider’s information, the thieves posed as real customers and emptied the best accounts of ’vast sums of money’ before splashing out on expensive jewellery and holidays.

They targeted seven victims, including doctors, during the nine month scam between July 2004 and April 2005.

One victim lost almost £400,000 in just four days.

An anonymous letter to the bank, tipped off investigators that the teenager was involved and she was suspended. But because the first customer had not realized her account had been targeted, the bank cleared Akinyemi of any involvement.

The brazen teenager then switched branches and continued the scam within a matter of months.

Jailing her, Judge Anthony Morris said: ’The person or persons in charge of this conspiracy needed a person on the inside to provide them with the relevant information about customer accounts, you were that person.

“In acting as you did over those nine months, you were guilty of a gross breach of trust. I’m satisfied your involvement in this case is out of character. It is a tragedy that someone like you has involved yourself in a case like this.

“You were recruited by another or others to provide customers’ details so that those others could open telephone banking in customers’ names and steal money from their accounts.

“You provided those details in respect of the first customer involved. As a result of that detail over £100,000 was stolen from customers’ accounts”, he added.

The court was told her boyfriend at the time ’knew a dodgy postman’.

Prosecutor Miles Bennett said: “The way the scheme would work once Akinyemi had entered into the computer and looked at people’s details, the information would be passed on and the fraudulent caller would then ring up posing as a customer and would be able to give the unique information making someone in the call centre believe they are talking to the true customer”.

The thief

disgraceful pple!

Why must our people disgrace us all over the world?
such a an innocent looking girl.
This girl most likely is British born for her to have gotten a bank job at 17.
Now she's a criminal and they call her Nigerian.
This is annoying.
Infact we reject her too.
She could be from Benin republic for all we care

_Queenisha:

Why must our people disgrace us all over the world?
such a an innocent looking girl.
This girl most likely is British born for her to have gotten a bank job at 17.
Now she's a criminal and they call her Nigerian.
This is annoying.
Infact we reject her too.
She could be from Benin republic for all we care

LOL

thing is Nigerians r always on d news for one crime or d other. . . how many can we reject?

I know this girl! I used to live in Enfield and I used to bank there. Quite likely I know the boys she passed the details to. Anybody that was doing C10's in Enfield at that time was an associate of mine, not by choice, but I grew up with a lot of these boys.

Ruth the thief.

Now many other good nigerians will have to go through HELL to get Bank Job.

She deserves to rot in JAIL

I keep saying it everywhere, the diasporic Nigerians are the ones spoiling the name of our country Nigeria. Anyway, who says she is a Nigerian anyway? Uche Uhurugo, the olympic medal winner for Britain, is a Nigerian but she never claims to be a Nigerian, so, if tommorrow, she robs a bank, they will say she is a Nigerian.

If I am the President, I will make a rule, anybody having a foreign passport, on entry to the country, should have his or her head marked with red paint, so that anywhere he/she goes in Nigeria, she will be recognised as a potential dupe, a thief and a rogue.

Funny shit is, she probably did it because of designer shoes/bags so she can fit in with the rest of 'em kids ('em ones that think that you can only look/feel good wearing expensive stuffs)

jay bee:

Funny shit is, she probably did it because of designer shoes/bags so she can fit in with the rest of 'em kids ('em ones that think that you can only look/feel good wearing expensive stuffs)

She has no excuse. At 17, she already worked in UK Bank. Sky is limit with good pay.

The judge was too friendly. I will give her 10yrs as lesson to others.

I bet you, once 'the Banks' notice any trace of Nigeria in you, they would be double cautions.

Seems we have so much of our people who deliberately ruin us.

Dont blame whites in this case; once beaten twice shy.

babe take style fine oooh

bad girl, bad girl, rot in jail