Bank manager stole from clients

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

HE WAS a trusted employee with an exemplary record who had worked for NatWest bank for 30 years.

But when Kevin Smith was transferred to run the King's Road branch in Chelsea, and found himself dealing with wealthy customers, he succumbed to the temptation of trying to match their affluent lifestyle.

He now faces a prison sentence after siphoning off a total of £85,000 from accounts. Smith, 50, befriended many of his customers. They would invite him and his wife for meals and holidays abroad.

However, on his bank manager's salary of £42,000, he could not keep up with them.

After racking up almost £120,000 in credit card debt and exhausting his overdraft facilities trying to match his new friends' spending habits, he was unable to meet his payments.

Over 13 months he transferred cash from the bank's private accounts into his own, falsifying paperwork to conceal his crime.

Blackfriars Crown Court heard how Smith began working for NatWest when he was 20, and was quickly promoted through the ranks.

Then in 1993 he was given the manager's position in Chelsea.

Smith's financial crisis came to a head in December 2000, when he began the embezzlement.

In March 2002, NatWest HQ staff carried out an inspection. It unearthed an incriminating paper trail leading straight to him.

He admitted the theft to police and was formally dismissed by the bank last October. He now lives on £72-a-week incapacity benefit.

At a hearing last week, Smith pleaded guilty to 16 counts of theft between December 2000 and January 2002 and the judge told him jail was inevitable.

Smith, of Leavenheath, Suffolk, will be sentenced at a later date.

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