A Dundee bank manager who swindled almost £90,000 from his branch to fund a lavish ‘Walter Mitty’ lifestyle has been jailed for 22 months.
The sheriff courtpreviously heardGordon Irvinesiphoned tens of thousands of pounds from the ATM at the Santander bank he ran on Lochee High Street before blowing the cash on foreign holidays to New York and Rio de Janeiro, widescreen TVs and a new car.
After leaving his girlfriend, to whom he had given a £1,000 birthday gift, Irvine moved in to a new flat, installed a pool table and gaming machines and paid off a year’s council tax and rent using the stolen money.
The 33-year-old even put £250 into the account of a customer who had queried a £25 bank charge before embarking on a sexual relationship with her the same night.
Irvine was caught after security staff emptying the ATMs noticed huge discrepancies and launched an investigation.
He was marched off the property and later resigned, but despite having his bank accounts frozen, only half the cash was recovered.
One former colleague who asked Irvine if he had “won the lottery” was told to check his account by the thief and subsequently found a £5,000 deposit paid in.
Prosecutor Nicola Gillespie previously told the jury: “He did not have some benefactor putting money in his account like some Charles Dickens Great Expectations story.
“He was living a Walter Mitty lifestyle.People asked if he had won the lottery. The money wasn’t coming from the lottery, it was coming from under their noses.
“He was fooling the bank, the banking system, his colleagues and the two women in his life.
“It’s no coincidence the bank lost £89,000 during this time or that £41,000 went to Mr Irvine’s account.
“It’s no coincidence the losses end on June 30 and since that time there are no further losses.”
Jim Laverty, defending, said that three of his client’s Santander accounts, containing around £36,000, had been frozen by the bank. Mr Laverty said: “He is a genuine first time offender and he clearly has a strong work ethic.”
Irvine, Nicoll Road, Broxburn, was found guilty by a jury after a five-day trial of embezzling £89,340 from the Santander branch between November 1 2010 and June 30 2011.
Sheriff Alistair Carmichael told Irvine: “I accept the bank will recover around £36,000. But you took money for your own purposes and broke the trust of the bank and its customers.
“The gravity of this offence means that only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”