A former head of online security at Lloyds Bank is facing a jail term after admitting she carried out a fraud worth more than £2.4m – exactly what she was hired to prevent.
Jessica Harper, 50, of Croydon, submitted false invoices over four years of £2,463,751 and then laundered the proceeds. Some of the money was spent on property in France where her mother lives.
Harper, who worked at the bank for 11 years, was given bail and will be sentenced next month.
At Southwark Crown Court, Harper admitted a single charge of fraud by abuse of position by submitting false invoices to claim payments. She was arrested on December 21 last year, before being charged in May.
The court heard that she was responsible for a “very simple” fraud and admitted her guilt ten minutes into her first police interview.
Harper has already repaid £300,000 and is in the process of selling her house for about £700,000. “That will be some £1m out of £2.5m that’s gone missing,” the court heard.
Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith granted Harper bail on the condition she stays at her current address, obeys a curfew and hands in her passport.
Sue Patten, head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Central Fraud Division, said: “Jessica Harper has today been convicted of the type of crime the bank employed her to combat. The evidence in the case was clear and left Harper with little choice but to plead guilty. In doing so, she has admitted to a huge breach of trust against her former employer.”
