Lovestruck cashier tried to do underworld deal

A lovestruck bank cashier betrayed her bosses because she wanted to fund a life of romance and passion with her two-timing boyfriend. For months, Nicola Dowell secretly printed out sensitive details of wealthy customers' accounts in the hope that Anthony Chen would sell them for a profit to underworld figures.

Clandestine meetings with an apparently shadowy contact convinced the pair everything was going to plan. But the "criminal" turned out to be an undercover detective called in by suspicious bank chiefs.

Dowell, 25, from Harlesden, north-west London, who admitted a year-long conspiracy to defraud at Southwark Crown court, fought back tears as Judge Dennis Levy jailed her for 14 weeks yesterday. "Although there was no loss to the bank ... this was a serious breach of trust," he told her. "A prison sentence is inevitable in the circumstances."

Sentencing Chen, 25, to eight months, the judge said he had clearly pressured his co-defendant into a life of crime. The court was told that the debt-ridden musician from Wembley, north London, who also admitted the conspiracy, already had a partner and a child. But he had promised Dowell a love-nest if she helped him make a fortune.

Dowell had selected wealthy clients at HSBC's Regent Street branch in London, where she had worked for five years. But officials suspected an insider had compromised security and called the police, who quickly identified Chen and Dowell.