Former Barclays branch manager faced with £112,000 fraud charges freed after data breach fine

A former bank manager who had been set to stand trial accused of aiding an alleged £112,400 customer account fraud has walked free from court after being fined over a lesser data breach charge.

Christiane Stoner, 43, had faced allegations of facilitating frauds carried out on customer accounts through her position at the Barclays branch in Stirling where she worked.

It had been alleged that she printed customer information and took images of their signatures from a bank system at a Barclays branch in Murray Place, Stirling, before supplying the data and images “to persons unknown”.

The original alleged offences were said to have taken between May and August, 2013

However, at Falkirk Sheriff Court Stoner’s plea to a lesser charge of breaching the Data Protection Act by illegally possessing an image of one customer’s signature was accepted and she was fined £500.

Fiscal depute Graham McLachlan said the bank had become suspicious after an image of a customer’s signature that she was not entitled to possess had been downloaded on to her company laptop computer.

He added: That was not allowed under the data rules at the bank at that time.”

Subsequently, an inquiry was carried out and Stoner, of Carnbroe, South Lanarkshire, resigned.

Raymond McIlwham, defending, said Stoner, who now works for an organisation assessing disability payments, was a separated mother-of-one of “previously impeccable character”, who had been “under a great deal of strain”.

He said: “Her marriage was in difficulties, some of her working habits would be careless, and both she and her colleagues were under real pressure as far as marketing quotas were concerned.”

He said she attributed her actions to having an “untidy” lifestyle at the time.

Sheriff John Mundy said she was facing a far less serious charge and his powers were limited to a fine.