Bank manager behind £21m fraud looks to new career as optician

Published on Monday 25 January 2010 21:46

A FORMER Edinburgh bank manager who carried out a £21 million fraud from the Royal Bank of Scotland now wants to become a dispensing optician.

Donald Mackenzie, who was jailed in June 2006 for one of Scotland's biggest frauds, applied to the General Optical Council (GOC) in London to register as a student.

His application was refused and his appeal against that decision has been rejected.

However, the Court of Session in Scotland could back his ambition by overturning the appeals committee's decision and he now has 28 days to lodge such an appeal.

Mackenzie, 48, was named the Royal Bank of Scotland business manager of the year for three years in a row but the GOC was told that Mackenzie set up false loans totalling 21m over a five-year period.

While serving his sentence, Mackenzie had worked at Eric Govan opticians in Dundee on day release from nearby Castle Huntly jail.

Last night Eric Govan, a partner at the firm, backed his efforts to register as a student. He said:

"If we weren't happy with his work he would not have been kept on. There's no problem with staff or customers."

However, dismissing his appeal to register as a student dispensing optician, Lady Margaret Wall, panel chair of the registration appeals committee, said the offences involved "startling dishonesty" with "barely credible" sums over four-and-a-half years.

Originally, his appeal refusal was described by the GOC as necessary because his registration could damage public confidence in the profession.

Lady Wall said: "The papers before the committee show offences of startling dishonesty involving sums which are barely credible. They also show unusual features which were very clearly set out in mitigation, in the judge's sentencing remarks and in his report to the appellate court.

"The appellant has been a model prisoner who has been assessed as very unlikely to re-offend. Moreover, he has been supported in his aspiration by a member of this profession."

However, she said, Mackenzie had made it clear that he would like to begin training in September 2010, but his licence in respect of the jail term did not expire until 5 February 2013.

She said he had not yet served the sentence and continued to be subject to conditions and to the possibility of recall to prison.

She continued: "Taking all of these matters into account the committee is struck by the fact that Mr Mackenzie was only released on licence in October 2009 and that since his initial admission to custody in June 2006 some three and a half years have elapsed – less than the period over which these offences were committed."