Bank staff members sentenced to jail after aiding an organized crime group

Bank staff members who were found guilty of aiding an organized crime group has recently been sentenced to several years of jail time, according to recent reports. The insiders were sentenced on charges of stealing up to £1 million from the bank’s customers.

Sentences for the bank staff and criminal network members

According to reports, several organized crime group members, including Matthew Abass, Emmanuel Chukwumeka Okafor, and Tosin Aminoritse, reached out to bank staff with the intention of recruiting them and drawing them into a scheme to rob the bank’s users. Staff members who agreed to aid the group in accessing the accounts and stealing the funds within included Hasses Khan, Ishmeal Jack, and Tyrone Ayodele Odesanya.

Thanks to these three individuals, the criminal network that the recruiters belong to managed to unlawfully access customer accounts and steal their money. To do this, they used individuals who pretended to be genuine customers, which allowed them to attend branches and conduct transfers and withdrawals to accounts controlled by the criminal group.

The sentencing came on November 1 and 2 of this year, at Southwark Crown Court. The court has sentenced Aminoritse to six and a half years in prison, which is the highest sentence. Abass received a sentence of five and a half years, while Okafor has the lowest sentence of four years in prison.

As for the bank staff members who aided the criminals, Odesanya was sentenced to three years in prison, while Jack only got a sentence of nine months. Khan, however, received a community order for the duration of 18 months, during which he had to complete 240 hours of unpaid work.

The bank staff betrayed the banks’ and their customers’ trust

The case was originally investigated by Detective Constable Andrew Hammond. The investigation was conducted on behalf of the banking industry-sponsored police unit, the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit.

Commenting on the case and the sentences, he said that Aminoritse, Okafor, and Abass callously orchestrated the theft of over £1 million from unsuspecting victims. He explained that the three criminals worked together carefully with the goal of defrauding banks and their customers. As for Odesanya, Jack, and Khan, Detective Constable Hammond noted that they abused their positions of trust and responsibilities that accompanied their roles as bank staff.

While the names of the bank staff members were revealed to the public, the exact bank or banks involved were not disclosed.