A Santander bank worker who accessed the accounts of customers with six-figure bank balances so fraudsters could raid their accounts has been spared jail.
Navern Rankin, 26, abused his position as a personal banker at the company’s Peterborough branch as part of a massive international scam, the Old Bailey heard on Thursday 30 April.
Armed with wealthy customers’ account details, crooks were able to transfer huge sums of stolen money to foreign exchange accounts in South East Asia and Hong Kong.
One customer had £440,000 transferred out of his account, while an attempted transaction involving £3m was foiled by vigilant bankers.
Mr Rankin had high-fived colleagues in celebration when an Asian associate, posing as a customer, was forced to leave the Long Causeway branch empty-handed when his boss became suspicious.
After he was arrested, police found text messages containing details of customer accounts Rankin had accessed, and one that said: “You know I will bring the money up”.
But Mr Rankin, who has been offered a place at Greenwich University, was spared jail after the judge heard how “vulnerable” Mr Rankin was “exploited and manipulated” by others.
Sentencing him to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, Judge Stephen Kramer QC said: “I am satisfied that what you did was a considerable breach of trust.
“Your role was important, but short. No loss is attributable to what you did. That is not as a result of anything to your credit, but is as a result of the fraud investigators of Santander.
“You were relatively easy prey to another person who used [you] of at the time of the offending.”
Mr Rankin’s role was described as “important” by prosecutor Martyn Bowyer, although limited to a 10-day period between 22 October and 1 November 2012 when no actual losses were suffered.
Mr Rankin, of Brixton, South West London, admitted conspiring with others to steal. The organisers of the fraud remain at large.
