Barclays cashier jailed over £1m accounts con

The key player in a group of Barclays bank workers who tried to steal more than £1 million from wealthy account holders was jailed for five years today.

Cashier Mohamed Iqbal conned customers at the Sloane Square branch of Barclays in central London between August and November 2007.

Along with fellow cashier Tommy Jackman and personal banker Chikezie Emeruem, he set up huge cash transfers while businessman Naresh Patwari laundered the cash or wired it abroad.

Sentencing them at London's Southwark Crown Court, judge Anthony Pitts said corruption and the abuse of trust lay at the heart of the case.

Iqbal, 30, of Kipling Place, Stanmore, showed no reaction as he was sentenced.

Jackman, 24, of Southampton Place, Bloomsbury, cried in the dock as he was jailed for four and a half years, while Emeruem, 33, of Church Lane, Adel, Leeds, was jailed for three and a half years.

Patwari, 50, of Selbourne Road, New Malden, Surrey, was sentenced to two years in jail and Karl Hessian, 29, of Banbury Grove, Biddulph, Stoke-on-Trent - who was the least involved - was jailed for 12 months.