Bank supervisor jailed for £18,000 HBoS theft

Published on Monday 1 December 2008 09:06

A BANK supervisor has been jailed for nine months for embezzling £18,000 from HBoS to pay off his gambling debts.

Jamie White handed himself into police before his employers had noticed the money was missing from his branch in Portobello.

White, 28, of South Gyle Mains, later confessed he had taken the money handed in by customers to pay off his own 30,000 online gambling debts.

He took the cash over a two-week period between January and February, just six months after being promoted to counter supervisor.

White pleaded guilty to embezzling 18,120 from HBoS at Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this year and appeared today to be sentenced.

Sheriff John Horsburgh QC said the offence deserved a prison sentence.

"Because of the seriousness nature of this offence involving a considerable breach of trust on the part of you as a bank employee and having regard also to the amount of money which you embezzled I think a custodial sentence of 12 months is the appropriate starting point," said the sheriff.

"I will reduce that to nine months having regard to your plea."

White, who had joined the bank's Leith branch as a customer assistant in 2005, had been made responsible in July 2007 for balancing the money at the end of the day.

He walked into a police station on February 18 and confessed to stealing money from the branch in Portobello High Street.

Investigators were called into HBOS and found the five-figure sum was missing.

White said he initially took 20 a day then increased it to 2,000 a time, as he was able to move money around the branch without it being noticed.

The supervisor claimed he had never taken money from customers personal accounts.

Solicitor Massimo D'Alvito, defending, said first offender White had suffered depression and was facing financial problems at the time of the offence, his mother had died and his partner was due to give birth to their son.

He said White's gambling debts had started at 10 or 20 a time but had escalated to "a much larger amount".

White was now taking a two-year training course in plumbing and was trying to pay back the money.

Social workers believe he posed a low risk of re-offending.

"Mr White knows and understands the seriousness of this offence and he is deeply, deeply anxious about it," said Mr D'Alvito.

"He knows he's let himself down and his family down."