Lloyds worker gets five year sentence for fraud

A former employee of Lloyds Bank who was in charge of online security has been sentenced to five years in jail after committing fraud while working at the bank.

50-year-old Jessica Harper, of South Croydon, London, admitted to filing 93 false and doctored invoices in order to claim payments totalling £2.46m between 2007 and 2011.

Of the fraudulent earnings, she gave considerable amounts to unwitting family and friends to making property investments.

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Ironically, Harper's role at the bank had been focused on tackling fraud at the bank.

She told the court she believed she deserved the money because of the hours she was putting in at the company. At the time she had been earning £60,000 a year at the time. Harper has a history of charity fundraising, and was given references by both a local school and Croydon Council.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Deborah Taylor told Harper: "You were a senior employee in the bank in a position with a high degree of trust at a time when Lloyds was substantially supported by a lot of taxpayers' money following difficulties sustained by the bank in the financial crisis.

"You disregarded your duties out of a sense of entitlement to take other people's money for your own benefit and that of your family."

The defendant has todate repaid £709,000.