Browse Sections
Interactive
Popular Sections
Partly sunnyNews
| 
Submit Comments
Shabnam Khan
Bank worker passed on customer profiles
by Jennifer Williams1/10/2008
A YOUNG mother abused her position in a bank call centre to hand scores of customers’ details to an accomplice - who then stole nearly a quarter of a million pounds.
Shabnam Khan 34, of Boddens Road, Heaton Mersey, started noting down customer details just four days after she finished her training at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Manchester.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Khan, who was described as "an extremely damaged person" due to years of domestic abuse, had access to birth dates and other security information, and was able to jot down customers’ three-digit security codes when they gave them over the phone.
For the next ten months, the mother of five sent a steady flow of information to an associate, who drained accounts of almost £250,000 and attempted to defraud another £426,711.
Khan sobbed throughout her court appearance, before being convicted of five counts of securing unauthorised access to computer material with intent to deception, with another 142 incidents taken into account.
Brian Berlyne, prosecuting, said she had handed the bank details to a male accomplice.
He said: "The bank’s investigation revealed that she could obtain sufficient confirmation information about customers for all 147 cases of the fraudulent activity to be carried out. The cost of this activity was £227,955. She noted down the information at work on a piece of paper and gave it to him. She said she made no financial gain."
The job was Khan’s first, the court heard, and she worked there from May 2005 until the breaches were discovered in March 2006.
John Potter, defending, said: "I do concede that this is a serious level of offending but it’s occasioned by an extremely damaged person."
He said she had suffered an "appalling degree of abuse throughout the entirety of her life" and that she was under the "malign influence" of her accomplice.
Khan had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, helped the police with their investigations and had no previous convictions, he added.
Sentencing her to two years in prison, Judge Thomas said: "You were trusted to have access to people’s personal and financial circumstances. You abused that trust very badly indeed. You began abusing that trust only four days after commencing work; for a period of ten months after, you obtained information in this way and you passed them on. The bank and customers were defrauded by not far short of a quarter of a million pounds. What you were doing was a gross breach of trust. It was very dishonest and very persistent."
Most recent 1 of 1 user comments
Got an opinion you want to share?| Company | Typical APR |
| Platinum Exclusive Loan | 7.8% |
| AA | 7.9% |
| Sainsbury's Personal Loan | 8.2% |
| Alliance & Leicester | 8.7% |
| Lloyds TSB | 8.9% |
| Abbey Personal Loan | 8.9% |
| Provider | AER* |
|
ICICI BANK HiSAVE Savings Account |
4.50% |
|
FIRST DIRECT Everyday e-Saver |
1.75% |
|
SAINSBURYS FINANCE Internet Saver |
2.25% |
He probably has an evening job skimming credit cards in a late night garage or curry house.
I sentence her to five years...take her down...
1/10/2008 at 19:26