Dundee banker who stole £18,000 from vulnerable customer with dementia jailed

A senior banker who stole nearly £18,000 from a vulnerable customer has been jailed.

Stephen Barr deliberately targeted the 81-year-old widower, who was a regular in the Bank of Scotland in Dundee, because he knew he suffered from dementia and was confused.

The 38-year-old, from Aberdeen, transferred £10,550 into a building society account belonging to his brother as well as making ATM withdrawals totalling £7,383.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard that the man had visited the branch in Murraygate throughout March and April 2018 and spoke with Barr about his accounts and affairs.

In May that year concerns were raised at Lloyd’s Banking Group over the number of faster payments being made by Barr from one of the man’s accounts.

The staff file number used to make the payments matched with that of Barr and the sort code of the Nationwide account receiving the payments was the same account he had received his salary into.

Five payments totalling £10,550 were identified as suspicious, having been authorised by Barr and transferred from the customer’s account to the Nationwide account which belonged to Barr’s brother.

Subsequent bank investigations revealed a total of £17,933 had been either withdrawn in cash or transferred from the man’s two accounts and the matter was referred to the police.

During interviews with Bank of Scotland officials, Barr said the man was a regular customer and admitted he was aware he had vulnerabilities.

The bank manager admitted taking one of the pensioner’s debit cards to withdraw cash from ATMs in Dundee and Aberdeen and to knowing the PIN number for his account due to his position at the bank.

The bank refunded the customer his stolen money prior to his death.

Barr was sentenced at Dundee Sheriff Court after he pled guilty to being involved in a fraudulent scheme between March and May 2018. He was jailed for 13 months.

The customer he stole from has since died.

Helen Nisbet, Procurator Fiscal for Tayside, Central and Fife, said: “This was a shocking and callous betrayal of trust of both a vulnerable man and of an employer.

“We all should be able to rely on banking staff to deal with our money honestly. However, in this case, Stephen Barr set out to target an elderly man and steal from him.

“Thankfully, his criminal conduct was uncovered, and justice has been done.”

Barr will now be subject to confiscation action under proceeds of crime legislation to recover the monies he stole.