Former HSBC worker jailed over foiled £300,000 customer fraud

Bryan Mearns, 43, handled phone inquiries from HSBC Premier Account holders and had access to their personal details.

Steps were taken against him after an investigation revealed that Mearns had dealt with all seven of a group of customer accounts over the course of a year that had reported suspicious activity including suspicious transactions or attempted transactions.

The investigation found that Mearns had conned clients into revealing personal details to him over the phone and made extensive electronic investigations into their accounts.

It was discovered that Mearns had used the information to make bogus phone calls to the bank by different people, including himself, in a bid to have substantial sums be transferred out of the accounts.

He even tried to disguise his voice by faking an accent to fool an operator into transferring £50,000.

The court heard Mearns tried to take £160,000 from 69-year-old Pighi Gibson, £50,000 from Paul Vlcek, 66, £30,000 from Rohit Singh, 39, and £16,842.21 from Dr Almudena Sevilla Sanz.

However, all of his attempts were thwarted by the bank’s security system.

Mearns was sacked after failing to attend a disciplinary hearing and the police were contacted.

He appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court where he admitted to attempting to fraudulently transfer £295,842.21 from HSBC between November 2010 and December 2011.

Ian Brechany, defending, said: “This was an offence which took place between 2010 and 2011 and is of some history.”

“The dream figure here for him was always £10,000 which he needed to pay off debts he had acquired.”