Bank worker who stole £162,000 to fund IVF is locked up
A bank worker who systematically stole more than £162,000 to have a baby was starting a two-year jail sentence today.
Karanjit Kailla, from Willenhall, pocketed the cash to fund IVF treatment but continued with the racket after the birth of the child she craved, a judge heard.
She got away with it for more than two years before Lloyds Bank launched an investigation, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
The 34-year-old was working in the complaints department at the bank’s offices on the Pendeford Business Park, Wolverhampton, when she turned to crime in 2014, revealed Mr Oliver Woolhouse, prosecuting.
The job gave her access to accounts in which reserves of money were kept to settle valid compensation claims from customers.
Bogus accounts
Kailla took advantage of this and set up four bogus accounts ostensibly belonging to her husband into which she moved cash from the bank’s personal accounts.
She made 92 payments – each below the £5,000 maximum she was allowed to handle – between July 15 2014 and October 3 2016, said Mr Woolhouse.
An internal inquiry discovered all the transfers had been made and processed by the defendant who admitted her crime when confronted by the facts on October 11, 2016.
She told a boss the money had gone on IVF treatment, the newborn child and settling debts, continued the prosecutor who concluded: “She had access to very significant funds and used her position to transfer money for her own benefit.” Police were alerted on October 31.
Repayment
Mr Naeem Karbhari, defending, said sentencing in the case had been delayed to allow the defendant’s family to collect money and start repaying the stolen cash.
The defendant forfeited her pension together with £5,805 held in her Halifax account and took out a £15,000 loan.
After her father and her siblings pooled their money she had £89,702 towards the £162,204 she pocketed during the fraud.
Her sister is set to raise a further £38,500 with the sale of a property she owns, leaving slightly more than £8,000 outstanding which will be settled by monthly payments.
Mr Karbhari stressed: “They are not trying to buy her out of punishment.”
Kailla, from Bloor Mill Close, admitted theft by an employee and was sent to prison by Judge Dean Kershaw who told her: “You and your husband have separated as a result of this offence and there will be an impact on your daughter but the sentence cannot be suspended.”
