A Fife bank call centre worker defraud customers of almost £37,000 by moving their money into an account set up in the name of a dead friend.
Two clients had made routine calls to Lloyds Bank call centre to have their addresses changed on their accounts.
Mark Abram, from Dunfermline, kept the information and later phoned his own bank on days off, pretending to be the customers.
Through the bogus calls, he managed to have money transferred to another account he had apparently set up in someone else’s name.
Abram, 38, of Craigmyle Street, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court where admitted forming a fraudulent scheme.
He twice contacted Lloyds Bank, pretending to be customers requesting the funds within their investor accounts to be transferred to external accounts and between February 13 and April 3 2017, obtained £36,946.96 by fraud.
Depute fiscal Claire Bremner told the court Abram had been employed at the centre and took a call from the first victim, who asked to change his address in relation to an ISA. Abram did not update the man’s account.
A few days later, Abram phoned Lloyds pretending to be the customer and asked for money in the ISA to be transferred into an account in the name of ‘Sean McGuinness’.
When the customer called with a genuine enquiry, he was told his £22,530 had been moved into another account.
A second customer was also targeted after a routine call to the centre to change the address on his account. Again, it was Abram who took the call and the requested change was not made.
Instead, Abram repeated his scam and more than £14,000 was transferred into the account of ‘Sean McGuinness’. Once again, this customer was told by the bank that his money was missing.
The court was told Sean McGuinness was someone who was known to Abram and who had died in May 2017.
Police were later told by Mr McGuinness’ mother he had told her bank accounts had been opened in his name without his consent.
Internal inquiries confirmed Abram had taken both customer requests and had been off work on the days the bogus calls were received.
When interviewed by his employers, Abram denied committing the offences but admitted his finances were in a “terrible” state.
He later sent a text message to the bank saying he was resigning with immediate effect and the police were contacted.
Defence solicitor Roshni Joshi said Abram lives with his mother. He is now in another job outside the financial sector, she added.
Sheriff Alastair Brown said the offence involved “a great deal of planning and was a very serious breach of trust”.
The sheriff called for reports, bail was continued and Abram will be sentenced on March 25.
