A Barclays chief who tried to blackmail the bank f

A Barclays chief who tried to blackmail the bank for 25 million pounds bragged to a colleague that he could ”hold the bank to ransom”, the Old Bailey heard today.

(Weds)

Graham Browne, who led the bank’s elite encription team, made the boast to a co-worker years before his multi-million pound extortion bid.

He told one colleague that Barclays didn’t recognise his talent and that ‘nobody could step into his job’ if he left, jurors heard.

Browne, formerly the bank’s top number cruncher, sent blackmail letters threatening to publicise highly sensitive information relating to customer’s cash cards if his demands for the cash were not met.

Susan MacDonald worked under the 57-year-old’s leadership for 10 years at Barclays’ ‘encription’ HQ in Knutsford, south Cheshire.

She left in 1997, three years before her boss launched his blackmail plot.

‘A lot of training and talent is needed in cryptography,’ said Mrs MacDonald.

‘Mr Browne was very special because not only could he do the programming and cryptography but he could also do the maths behind it.

‘His talent was never recognised and he became very frustrated.

I think he felt isolated.

‘We discussed the fact that he didn’t get recognised or get a fair wage.

We both felt we were ignored.

‘He was extremely specialised and got increasingly frustrated.

‘It’s an unfortunate term of phrase but he said he could hold the bank to ransom.

‘He said he could leave the bank and come back as a highly paid consultant because nobody could step into the job he did.

‘

She added: ‘Graham tended to keep knowledge to himself and found it difficult to share.

‘

Another colleague, Nigel Packer – who had worked with Browne for 14 years – said his boss became stressed at the levels of bureaucratic involvement.

‘At times it was very stressful for him,’ Mr Packer told the court.

‘He had various difficulties.

I know his father died in that period and that Mr Browne volunteered for redundancy because of his various frustrations but the bank turned him down.

‘He was always trying to pursue the bank’s authorities to meet his needs but did not have a great deal of success.

‘

Mr Packer told how soon after, in January last year, Browne resigned in an ‘unconventional’ way by emailing Barclays over the weekend.

‘Initially the bank didn’t know what to do.

But Graham had more or less regretted what he did because he loved his job.

‘The next day he came into the office but he was told not to ever come back again.

I think it had been his intention to undo his resignation.

‘

Browne, launched his blackmail campaign in March last year, by sending the first of four letters to the bank’s chief executive, it is alleged.

In them he threatened to disclose the complex codes contained in the magnetic strip of customer cash cards potentially paving the way for fraudsters to cheat the system, jurors have heard.

He demanded that his named team of 14 experts were paid pnds stlg 1.

7 million each to form a specialist division.

But he claimed they were an elaborate way of highlighting the bank’s lax security and were merely meant as a joke.

Browne, of (2) Deans Row, Knutsford Road, Cranage, Cheshire, denies one charge of blackmail dating between March 8, 2000 and September 27, 2000.

The trial continues.

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