Worker jailed for fraud at Birmingham Midshires

A Birmingham Midshires worker was jailed for more than two years today for a "calculated and mean" fraud in which he helped steal more than £100,000 of customers' savings.

Ivan Obita logged into accounts, some belonging to elderly customers of the Wolverhampton-based bank, and handed over personal details such as passwords and dates of birth to thieves.

The thieves then phoned posing as the genuine customers wanting to transfer funds. But he will only have to pay back the total value of his assets, which were today valued at £295.

The 37-year-old passed on details which enabled the criminals to make three transfers totalling £108,000.

Two attempts to transfer more money, which would have taken the value of the fraud to more than £230,000, failed.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how victim Peter Hughes got through to Obita at the bank's call centre on Pendeford Business Park when he phoned to move his account to one with a better interest rate.

Obita asked Mr Hughes for the seventh letter of his password, but as it only contained six letters, Obita asked him for a new password and reset it for him.

Three days later records he logged into Mr Hughes' account. Obita also accessed other customers' accounts days after speaking to them.

Four customers fell victim to attempts to transfer funds from their account following calls from imposters on Obita's days off. Obita, of Marroway Street, Edgbaston was caught because he was the only staff member to have dealt with all of the victims.

He was convicted of five counts of unauthorised access to a computer system for dishonest reasons. All customers were reimbursed by Midshires.

Jailing Obita for two years and four months, Recorder David Herbert said: "What you did was calculated and mean."