Westpac employee spared jail for part in bank theft
(20 January 2010 – Australia) A woman who worked for Westpac Banking Corporation for 22 years before helping a friend steal A$115,000 from customers’ accounts at the bank has escaped a jail sentence.
The Westpac employee, Riza Veronica Angeles, has been ordered to serve a new community-based sentence brought in by the state government to replace periodic detention.
The mother of two, who had never previously been in trouble, met and befriended Raymund King in a shoe store. Over time Mr King convinced Ms Angeles to access confidential details of several bank customers through the bank’s mainframe in May and August 2009.
Mr King then, unbeknown to Ms Angeles, then used the information to transfer tens of thousands of dollars into his own account, which was wired to the Philippines.
Magistrate Mark Buscombe found Ms Angeles guilty of six charges of unauthorised access with intent to facilitate the commission of a serious offence, although he noted that she received no money or benefit from the scam.
In the Downing Centre Local Court yesterday, she was sentenced to a 12-month intensive correction order, a community-based punishment in which offenders must participate in rehabilitation programs, observe strict curfews, undergo regular drug and alcohol testing and complete a minimum of 32 hours a month of community service.
Magistrate Buscombe made a compensation order of A$115,500 in favour of Westpac.
The mother of two, who had never previously been in trouble, met and befriended Raymund King in a shoe store. Over time Mr King convinced Ms Angeles to access confidential details of several bank customers through the bank’s mainframe in May and August 2009.
Mr King then, unbeknown to Ms Angeles, then used the information to transfer tens of thousands of dollars into his own account, which was wired to the Philippines.
Magistrate Mark Buscombe found Ms Angeles guilty of six charges of unauthorised access with intent to facilitate the commission of a serious offence, although he noted that she received no money or benefit from the scam.
In the Downing Centre Local Court yesterday, she was sentenced to a 12-month intensive correction order, a community-based punishment in which offenders must participate in rehabilitation programs, observe strict curfews, undergo regular drug and alcohol testing and complete a minimum of 32 hours a month of community service.
Magistrate Buscombe made a compensation order of A$115,500 in favour of Westpac.
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