Jail for bank worker in fiddle

11:59am Tuesday 13th May 2008

A TRUSTED bank worker authorised £83,000 worth of loans for her secret lover and his Bolton pals after he threatened to show her family an explicit video of them having sex.

Alison Twiss had already loaned Fawzi Abu about £13,000 of her own money before he blackmailed her into sanctioning the bank loans, a court heard yesterday.

The bank worker's dishonesty came to light when no payments were made on the nine loans she had authorised for Abu and his friends.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Abu has since fled to his homeland of Libya and is wanted for allegedly abducting his daughter.

Yesterday, Twiss, of Highfield, Wigan, was jailed for 12 months after pleading guilty to nine offences of obtaining money transfers, totalling £83,400, by deception between November, 2004, and January 7, 2005.

William Swalwell, defending, said Twiss, a 33-year-old mother of two, had lost her job, her marriage had ended and she was now likely to lose her home as a result of the incidents.

He said: "She did not receive the benefit of these crimes, but will have to foot the bill. Looking back, she cannot believe how stupid and naive she was."

Harry Pepper, prosecuting, said Twiss had been employed by the Halifax in Wigan for 13 years. Her role as a bank adviser included authorising loans.

An internal investigation revealed she had authorised loans to Abu and others at an address in Bolton, for which no repayments were made. When interviewed she made a frank confession.

She told police how Abu had threatened to show the video on his mobile phone of them having sex and pressurised her to authorise loans. She was not charged until last year, while investigations continued into Abu.

Judge John Roberts said: "At the end of the day, you did not benefit by one single penny, but that in no way lessens the amount lost by the bank."

He told Twiss that he took into account her previous good character and the fact that it had been two years from first being questioned by police until she was charged.

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