Bank clerk jailed over ID theft

A bank clerk who was at the centre of a �500,000 identity fraud has been jailed for 18 months at the Old Bailey.

Ruth Akinyemi, 23, was paid at least �3,000 for passing personal details of eight Barclays Bank customers to fraudsters who plundered the accounts.

The masterminds behind the fraud have not been caught and most of the money is still missing.

Akinyemi, of Park Road, Enfield, north London, was convicted of conspiracy to steal, at a hearing in April.

Jurors heard Akinyemi took part in an "alarmingly simple" scam while working as a customer co-ordinator for Barclays Bank in Enfield and later in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Instead of taking this as a warning that you should stop this dishonesty you carried on, no doubt thinking you got away with it on this occasion Judge Anthony Morris

Akinyemi, who was 18 when she first took part, passed on personal details to accomplices who then used the information to ring in to the bank, posing as account holders, and transfer large amounts of money.

Jurors heard she helped steal more than �100,000 from one customer while working in north London.

The court heard that after a tip-off about her activities she was investigated and later cleared.

Judge Anthony Morris said: "Instead of taking this as a warning that you should stop this dishonesty you carried on, no doubt thinking you got away with it on this occasion."

The economics graduate was moved to St Albans where she targeted seven customers living within two miles of each other in Camden and Islington, north London, between July 2004 and April 2005.

Two other defendants were sentenced earlier this year in connection with the case.

Allen Strong, 31, from Croydon, south London, was sentenced to 120 community service for conspiracy to steal and acquiring criminal property.

Thomas Sfeffazi, 23, from Charlton, south-east London, was given a two-year suspended sentence for the same offences.

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