Bank worker lived high life on clients' cash

A young bank worker systematically siphoned off £46,000 from customer accounts and spent it all on cocaine, holidays, designer clothes and a car.

Michael Myrie, 21, from Poplar in east London, began his thefts six months after he joined Lloyds TSB, Southwark Crown Court heard yesterday.

When new customers handed him cash to open accounts he would keep the money and covered his tracks by moving funds from existing wealthy clients, hoping that the relatively small withdrawals would not be noticed.

Eventually a customer's complaint triggered an intensive audit at the branch in Regent Street, London. By that time, all but £50 of the money had been spent. When confronted, Myrie confessed.

He admitted four counts of theft and asked for 22 similar offences to be considered. Jailing him for 15 months, Judge Dennis Levy QC, said the thefts were a "massive breach of trust".