Prison for alcoholic bank boss who stole £100,000

The victims of Owen Danter’s “deliberate deception” included two women who were in their 80s and one who had died.

The former deputy chairman of the Beverley and Holderness Conservatives is starting a 21-month jail sentence after earlier admitting stealing the money from five accounts and a cash machine over three years, while he was bank manager at the Santander branch in Driffield.

Danter, 33, would open the back of the cash machine, take out money – up to £10,000 in one day alone – then move money round the accounts of his affluent clients to cover his tracks.

Hull Crown Court heard he was a “functioning alcoholic”, who used the money to fund his lifestyle and addiction to drink.

He began stealing small amounts, but gradually things spiralled “out of control” until he was at his “wits’ end” and he decided the only solution was suicide.

He drove to Cropton Forest in North Yorkshire last July 8 in his Land Rover Discovery where he attempted suicide by various means, including taking an overdose washed down with wine, having sent letters, including a detailed confession to his bank.

Sentencing Danter, Judge Jeremy Baker QC said: “These offences are individually and collectively so serious that neither a fine or a community penalty could be justified for them because of the deliberate deception by which you perpetrated these thefts over a significant period of time and with significant loss of funds to your victims.”

The daughter of one the victims said: “It is a bit of a shock – you do trust your bank manager. She is very happy that the money was refunded by Santander who took responsibility for it.”

Det Sgt John Meagher said Danter was living a champagne lifestyle, going out drinking every night and being “everybody’s best friend” as he was always standing drinks. He had even built himself a bar in the back garden of his rented cottage in Beswick, near Beverley.

He said: “His whole life would revolve around him getting drunk. He’d put on a big front, then he’d spend every night out.

“It’s not the case of an alcoholic buying cheap cider – he would be drinking top notch Pinot Grigio from Bar Fusion in Beverley – when you do that you can get through quite a lot of money. He used the cash machine as his own.

“Whenever it came to an audit and he needed to sort it out, he would move round money in the accounts or set up false bonds and put the money into the cash machine to avoid being caught. He chose the old ladies’ accounts because they were people who only came in once or twice a year and they were quite affluent.

“They only found out when the bank informed them, so they have never known the money has gone and the bank has paid up – but at the end of the day it is a massive breach of trust.”

Police said they’d had difficulty tracing where Danter spent his money. They believe he spent more than £130,000 but the Judge yesterday accepted the defence’s figure of £107,000. The only money that had gone through his bank account was to pay his solicitors when he was in court in 2010 accused of battery of his ex-partner, for which he was given a community order.

Defence counsel Bernard Gateshill said Danter was still in debt and had “nothing to show from the money he has stolen”.

Danter pleaded guilty to nine counts of theft earlier this month. Peter Turner, chairman of Beverley and Holderness Conservatives, said Danter, who stepped down in 2010, had seemed “a really nice, genuine and capable guy”.

Coun Turner said: “I knew him very well. The whole thing is a tragedy. I accept he has done what he has done but it was impossible to believe on knowing him that he could do that.

“He was politically aware, he was a good organiser, and very likeable, he could motivate people. He was a smart young guy.”

Some £30,000 had been reclaimed by Santander confiscating the value of Danter’s pension fund.

All the victims have been reimbursed by Santander, which yesterday declined to comment.