A mum used her job with Lloyds Bank to scam her friends and family in a £500,000 con. Annabelle Allan, 29, lured loved ones into investing in the fake share scheme, using "sophisticated" methods to trick the victims. These included her own brother, as Allan had previously taken out personal loans in his name without his knowledge.
A court heard the mother of two had a "thirst of knowledge" but an "addiction to money" and, between 2017 and 2019, she used her IT position at a Lloyds Bank data centre to devise a "detailed and convincing" fake share scheme before encouraging family, friends and acquaintances to invest in it. Over that period, Allan was said to have obtained just under £500,000, but almost £330,000 had been "recycled" back to investors. The court heard that some victims had also been reimbursed by Lloyds Bank, but there was still an unaccounted sum of £167,796.
40. Allan was said to have forged signatures and sent investors fake letters purporting to be from the police or solicitors. Lloyds Bank investigated Allan's activities in early 2019 and, after being suspended, she was dismissed four months later.
And on Tuesday last week, the mum was jailed for four years at Bradford Crown Court after admitting fraud. The judge had been told byAllan's barrister, Recorder Bryan Cox KC, the woman fell into a "vicious cycle of debt" after taking out a Payday loan when she was 18. But Mr Cox KC conceded Allan, from Halifax, West Yorkshire, had been "tricking people and misl.
