Ely & St Neots: Bank Manager Jailed

20 February 2014, 09:59 | Updated: 20 February 2014, 10:09

A bank trouble-shooter who helped himself to £176,000 in cash over a five-year period to fund his gambling addiction has been jailed.

Joshua Bridgeman, of Lee Close, Cottenham, created a number of fictitious transfers to move money around the Barclays systems, before creaming off the surplus cash.

The 28 year old, who had worked his way up to assistant manager at the bank's Ely branch, would even offer to work Saturdays, knowing he would have access to handle cash.

He plundered a total of £176,000 between 2007 and 2012, and was pocketing up to £6,000 a month when he was caught through an internal investigation in March 2012.

He started taking money while working at the St Neots branch of the bank, creating a huge amount of false documents to move cash between accounts.

He was charged with theft but claimed to not have taken a penny. He admitted falsifying documents but said he did so in an effort to get to the bottom of an error he had discovered.

However, he was convicted following a trial at Cambridge Crown Court on Tuesday (February 18). He was jailed for three years.

Detective Constable Sharon Garrett from the Economic Crime Unit, said: "Bridgeman was a highly valued and trusted member of the bank.

"He had worked himself up to assistant manager and would be sent to other branches as a trouble-shooter. He knew the systems inside out having worked for the bank since leaving school and was able to use that knowledge to avoid detection for some time.

"He stole a huge amount of money and the sentence shows how seriously such a breach of trust is taken by the courts."