'˜Wicked' bank worker jailed for stealing £17,000 from elderly customers

Anne Peterson, who worked as a customer services advisor and occasional bank teller for Lloyds in Barry, South Wales, took the money from two elderly customers - including from one after she had died.

The 60-year-old, who worked at the bank for more than 30 years before being dismissed in 2013, denied four counts of fraud but was found guilty after a trial at Cardiff Crown Court in May.

On Friday, Judge Stephen Hopkins QC described Peterson, of Somerset Road East, Barry, as a “wicked, dishonest woman” who had showed no remorse for her actions.

He said: “You stole from two elderly customers who, like your employer, trusted you.

“It was in effect a double breach of trust.”

The court heard Peterson stole £12,000 from two accounts belonging to one customer, Rona Wilson, 92, taking the final £4,000 from her savings account, around two weeks after she had died.

Judge Hopkins said: “She thought you were her friend, you were anything but.”

Peterson also stole £5,080 from William Tovey, 83, from an ISA she had helped him set up.

The pensioner discovered the theft after going to the bank to query a letter about interest rates and was “aghast” to find out his account had nearly been emptied, Judge Hopkins said.

By that time, Peterson had already been dismissed after it was discovered she had been stealing money from her sister-in-law’s account - identical offences that she pleaded guilty to and received a suspended sentence for separately to the current case.

A new investigation was launched and the theft from Mrs Wilson was also discovered.

The court heard Mr Tovey and Mrs Wilson’s daughter both believed they had been targeted because of their age.

Judge Hopkins said: “You showed not a hint of remorse, you conducted yourself (during the trial) in a cold and arrogant way.

“Apart from the absence of remorse you show no victim empathy at all.”

He added that Peterson had sought to place the blame on colleagues, alleging a conspiracy against her.

The court heard Peterson carried out repeated checks on the accounts she was stealing from and changed the details so that bank statements would go to the bank, where she could intercept them, rather than to the customer’s home.

Andrew Griffiths, for the defence, said the offences had not benefited his client financially as the money would be recouped by Lloyds from her pension pot.

He said Peterson was a “under severe financial pressure” at the time of the thefts and had been a “popular, trusted” member of staff at the bank.