Bank worker stole £18,000 for gambling habit funds

Published on Friday 31 October 2008 09:02

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

Jamie White, 28, took up to 2000 per day over a two-week period before blowing it on casinos, bookmakers and online gambling.

The Halifax Bank of Scotland supervisor had run up debts of 30,000 through gambling when he decided to confess to the police, before the bank had even realised what was going on.

After they were alerted, the bank launched an internal inquiry, and White, who worked at the Portobello branch, was sacked.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday, White admitted embezzlement over the scam, in 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.

White began by lifting 20 from the bank but ended up taking as much as 2000 every day.

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 was not even aware of the missing money and had to launch a probe to confirm it.

White, of South Gyle Mains in Edinburgh, will be sentenced next month.