Bank manager jailed over swindle

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A Fife bank manager who took thousands of pounds from elderly customers has been jailed for 13 months.

Susan Burnett, 40, who managed Lloyds TSB branches in Edinburgh and Fife, earlier pleaded guilty to embezzling £14,890 and to fraud of almost £7,500.

Sentence had been deferred on Burnett while she repaid the cash taken between February 2005 and November 2006.

But, she was still jailed after being told by the sheriff she could not "buy her way out of custody".

The Dalgety Bay woman took the money from elderly account holders to pay off her own debts.

But she was caught when the pensioners noticed huge sums disappearing from their bank balances.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard how she targeted one specific customer, a woman in her 60s, by telling her she could help her sort her finances out.

Instead, Burnett made two loan applications in her name for a total of £7,400 and diverted the cash into her own bank account.

It's been a substantial fall from grace for her as she was dismissed immediately from her employment Angus McLennanSusan Burnett's agent

A police investigation then found Burnett had already illegally transferred a further £11,390 from the same woman's account.

As police probed the fiddled accounts they were contacted by another woman, also described as being elderly, whose account had been raided of £3,500 without her approval.

Having worked her way to the top of two bank branches over 18 years, her sacking later saw her reduced to working cash-in-hand in a Chinese restaurant.

Before sentencing, Burnett tried to bail herself out of prison by selling her house to pay back the money.

However, Sheriff Derrick McIntyre told her: "You can't buy yourself out of a custodial sentence."

He said he had to "acknowledge the public interest" over her own regret and remorse.

Burnett's defence agent Angus McLennan said Burnett should not have been jailed as she had already suffered.

He said: "It's been a substantial fall from grace for her as she was dismissed immediately from her employment."

Sheriff McIntyre added that Burnett's 13-month sentence was reduced from 18 months, due to her repayment of the cash.