14 DAY TRIAL // Three Lloyds TSB employees aged 27, 22, and 30 are accused of attempting to steal more than £2 million ($3.4 million / €2.47 million) from the bank accounts of customers. The suspects were all bank clerks.
According to Oxford Mail, the three are said to have installed a device on the computer of a colleague that enabled them to harvest the information needed to fraudulently transfer money from customer accounts.
The conspiracy took place in the summer of 2012 at Halifax branches in Slough, Newbury and Camden. Halifax is a division of Bank of Scotland, which is a subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group.
Prosecutors say the fraudsters installed what they call a rogue “USB mouse, keyboard and mass storage device.” The gadget allowed them to remotely access the targeted computer through the Internet. The fraudulent transactions were carried out when the bank was closed.
The suspects are believed to have attempted to steal over £2 million ($3.4 million / €2.47 million), but the actual damage to the bank is around £440,000 ($738,000 / €535,000).
The conspiracy was uncovered when a Halifax branch manager noticed a suspicious transaction of tens of thousands of pounds into a customer’s account.
An investigation uncovered that a total of £605,000 ($1 million / €735,000) were transferred to 13 different accounts. The hacking device was discovered during an internal investigation.