Gambling addict stole £18,000 from bank where he worked

Published on Thursday 30 October 2008 08:50

A GAMBLING addict stole £18,000 from the bank where he worked to fund his habit.

Jamie White, 28, took up to 2,000 per day over a two week period before blowing it on casinos, bookmakers and online gambling.

The Halifax and Bank of Scotland supervisor had run up debts of 30,000 through gambling and finally cracked – confessing his scheme to cops before his company even found out.

After they were alerted they launched an internal inquiry and White was sacked from his job at the Portobello branch near Edinburgh.

And today at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, White admitted embezzlement over the scam which he ran between January and February this year.

Fiscal depute Diana MacDonald told the court how White had found a way to steal money but balance books every time a customer deposited cash.

She said he started the scam because he had run up debts of 30,000 gambling in casinos, bookmakers and on the internet.

White began by lifting 20 from the bank but ended up taking as much as 2,000 every day. Miss MacDonald said he would then go out and gamble the money.

The stressed out banker ended up turning himself in at a police station where he told officers everything.

He had hidden his tracks so well that the bank were not even aware of the missing money and had to launch a probe to confirm it.

His defence solicitor, Massimo Dalvito, said he had set up the scam because he had a new baby and a mortgage and was having financial difficulties.

He added that White never took customers' money, only the bank's.

Sheriff John Horsburgh deferred sentence for reports and White, of South Gyle Mains in Edinburgh, will be sentenced next month.