Careless typing by a trusted manager at a top City

Careless typing by a trusted manager at a top City bank prevented him swiping a small fortune – and nearly became led to a prison term today.

(Fri)

The debt ridden officer bamboozled supervisors at the Union Bank of Scotland into authorising a pnds stlng 88,750 payment.

But bungling Richard Abban’s fumbles on a keyboard meant that instead of an automatic transfer of the cash into an account he held with investment broker Fidelity in Tonbridge, Kent, the UBS client queried the move.

London’s Southwark Crown Court heard instead of typing ‘ABBA’ for his account details on the instruction, the 32-year-old accidentally pressed the adjacent key – spelling out ‘AVVA’.

Fidelity, unable to comply with the request, questioned the move by UBS, where Abban had worked for ten years and was in charge of transfers of money from the bank.

Arrested in January 1998, Abban, of Tayment Rise, Forest Hill, se London, was granted bail after surrendering a passport and on relations in Birmingham providing a pnds stlng 10,000 surety.

Trailed with the help of Interpol to his native Ghana, the court heard naively Abban had applied for a job and requested a reference from UBS.

Extradition proceedings were started, but the defendant chose to return to London voluntarily.

Last month Abban was found guilty of theft, a jury taking 10 minutes to reach verdicts after a three day trial.

Judge Geoffrey Mercer ordered Abban to complete 180 hours community service and pay pnds stlng 950 costs, saying ‘exceptional circumstances’ saved imposing a jail term.

Sentencing, he described the offence as a ‘substantial breach of trust in relation to your employer.

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He said Abban had transferred in excess of pnds stlng 88,000.

‘That transfer might not have been detected save you made certain slips in the wording of the transfer itself,’ said the judge.

‘There was an element of persistence in which you had certain conversations confirming the transaction and gave the correct account number.

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He said defendants who stole from employers would normally go to prison for two to three years.

But he told Abban, at the time with debts of pnds stlng 35,000, there were exceptional circumstances, not least his medical depression at the time.

‘It is clear that your position at the bank was far from a happy one – you felt isolated and undervalued – and I have no doubt it effected your self-esteem.

You had personal problems,’ said Judge Mercer.

He said at the time, Abban had reached ‘a crisis stage’ and added: ‘It is said the taking of this money could be seen as a crisis and a cry for help.

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The judge said he was assured Abban had recovered from his problems and presented no risk to the public of further offending.

ends