Newport Lloyds bank worker gave customers’ security numbers to fraudsters

• Lloyds call centre worker handed over six-digit numbers to her friend
• Numbers were then used to take cash from four different bank accounts
• She and her friend were both jailed for 14 months for conspiracy to defraud

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Kimberley Joyner was caught giving customers’ secret security numbers to friends so they could to plunder savings accounts

A female bank worker passed on customers’ security numbers to help a gang of her friends plunder 23,000 from four different accounts.

Kimberley Joyner, 24, gave the six-digit numbers to friend Alice Rodgers, a fellow mother-of-one, who then posed as three of the customers to move cash from three of the accounts via Lloyds’ telephone banking service.

The pair were jailed today after they appeared in court alongside three other gang members, when a judge was told the stolen cash had ‘vapourised’ and couldn’t be found.

Rodgers, who is eight weeks pregnant, will give birth in jail after both women were jailed for 14 months for conspiracy to defraud.

Ieuan Bennet, prosecuting, said Rodgers, 23, was the leader of the conspiracy and the link between Joyner, who worked part-time at a Lloyds call centre in Newport, Gwent, and the rest of the gang.

The bank launched an investigation after customers reported money vanishing from their savings accounts . Joyner was recorded asking customers for their full security number in October 2013, instead of just two of the six digits as required by the bank’s security system.

Mr Bennett said: ‘Customers were offered the use of telephone banking facilities and were given six digit security numbers.

‘When they call the bank they are asked for part of the number . The employee is not supposed to obtain the entirety of the number.

‘Kimberley Joyner was recorded repeatedly asking a number of customers for the entirety of their six digit number.

‘She was taking a note of the full numbers and bank account details and passing them on.

‘The conspirators then decided the way to misuse this information was to telephone the bank and pose as genuine customers.

‘When asked security questions, they had that information and were able to pose themselves as customers.

‘They ordered that money be passed into other accounts and that money was effectively stolen from the accounts.’

Newport Crown Court heard Rodgers fraudulently transferred 10,000 in two transactions from one customer’s account and 2,500 from a second customer .

She then phoned again posing as a third customer to move 5,500 into a different account.

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Joyner worked part-time at a Lloyds call centre in Newport, Gwent (pictured) . She was not the gang’s leader

Accomplice Joshua Purveur, 23, stole 5,000 from a male customer’s account before the fraud was detected by bank officials.

The court heard 12,500 of the cash was transferred into accounts belonging to associate Malcolm Richardson, 56 – who banked 10,000 – and his son Jamie, 30, a stock car enthusiast who has a son with Rodgers.

Mr Bennett said the elder Richardson claimed he had won the lottery when police asked him why the cash had been transferred into his account, but ‘couldn’t remember where he had bought the ticket.’ The prosecutor added: ‘He told them it was just a windfall and that he had already spent it on Christmas presents .

In his words he had blown the lot.’ Joyner resigned when she was arrested in February 2014, and was formally dismissed in August 2014.

Rodgers’ lawyer Claire Pickthall said the mother-of-one ‘bitterly regretted’ her actions – and now faces giving birth in jail as she is eight weeks pregnant.

Recorder Geraint Walters said: ‘This conspiracy to defraud resulted in inconvenience to bank customers and financial loss to the bank.

‘But by far the most serious aspect is that criminal behaviour of this kind hits the public’s confidence in facilities such as telephone banking when security procedures are breached by the dishonest behaviour of members of the bank staff.’ Purveur was jailed for 10 months after also admitting conspiracy to defraud, while the Richardsons admitted possessing criminal property and were given community orders.

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Lloyds have said no customers would lose out as a result of the fraud, which is took ‘extremely seriously’

All five defendants were from Newport.

The court heard all four of the customers affected had been compensated by the bank.

A Lloyds spokesman said: ‘We take matters of fraud extremely seriously .

We would also ensure that no customers will have lost out as a result.’

A source close to the investigation said 5,000 of the stolen cash was paid into Purveur’s account, with the balance transferred into an account belonging to an ‘entirely innocent’ man from the Midlands, who had no apparent connection to the gang .

That cash, amounting to 5,500, was recovered by police.

Detective Constable Denise Hughes, who led the investigation for the DCPCU, said: ‘These callous fraudsters stole thousands of pounds from innocent customers, and we are pleased to have dismantled this criminal gang.

‘These sentences send out a strong message to other would-be fraudsters you will be caught and punished.’

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