A bank employee stole a customer's card and accessed his PIN to help herself to his money, a court has heard. The customer had gone into the branch seeking help as he was worried he was being targeted by scammers, but the member of staff he turned to - Mary Roberts - responded by stealing from him.
Incident at Haverfordwest branch
Swansea Crown Court heard the victim of the fraud has died since the incident, but his widow described how the incident "shattered his confidence" and how it was a "violation of a kind and trusting man".
The court heard that Roberts was working in the Haverfordwest branch of Barclays on November 22, 2023, when Keith Alan France went into the bank to check whether text messages he had received were from Barclays or were scams. Roberts asked Mr France to put his card and PIN into a PIN sentry machine which generated a code and which allowed the defendant to access the customer's account. Mr France subsequently left the bank and went home, only later realising that he did not have his card.
Withdrawal and CCTV evidence
The court heard that around 90 minutes after the victim left Barclays, his card and PIN were used in a shop near the defendant's home address to withdraw £250. CCTV footage subsequently recovered from the store showed the presence of Roberts.
In a statement read to the court by prosecution barrister Ieuan Rees, the widow of Mr France said her husband had been an incredibly kind man who would "do anything for anyone" and who trusted people. She said when her husband found out a bank employee had read his PIN and used his card it "shattered his confidence", and she said it pained her immensely "that a man who spent his life doing good for others was abused this way". She added: "This was not just financial - it was a violation of a kind and trusting man".
Sentencing and judge's remarks
The court heard that following the incident the defendant lost her job at the bank. Mary Roberts, 48, of Coronation Avenue, Haverfordwest, had previously been convicted at trial of theft and fraud by false representation by abuse of position when she returned to the dock for sentencing. She has no previous convictions.
Hywel Davies, for Roberts, said references from family and friends spoke of the defendant as a caring and supportive woman, and painted a different picture of his client from the one the court had heard about. He said as a result of what happened his client had lost a job which she enjoyed, and said it was unlikely she would be able to return to employment in the banking sector.
Judge Christopher Vosper KC said bank customers were entitled to expect staff to act appropriately in regard to their financial affairs, and said when an employee acts in the way the jury determined Roberts had acted then the custodial threshold for sentencing was crossed. The judge said he had read about Roberts' health issues and her caring responsibilities for her mother, but he noted that the defendant's suggestion in the pre-sentence report that Mr France may have been responsible for what happened does her "no credit" and is "wholly unrealistic".
Roberts was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison suspended for 12 months. Judge Vosper said under the new sentencing guidelines, courts were obliged to suspend a sentence of under 12 months unless there were exceptional circumstances, and he said even if those guidelines were not in force he would, in any case, have suspended the sentence. The judge declined to add a probation requirement to the suspended sentence.
