A crooked bank manager who plundered £18,000 from the account of a vulnerable pensioner is facing jail.
Kerry Hamilton, 39, worked as the senior personal banking manager at a TSB branch in Hamilton, Lanarkshire.
She had access to all accounts held at bank as part of her duties.
But a probe was launched after 'irregularities' were flagged up on the account belonging to a 68-year-old customer.
It was discovered Hamilton had removed sums of cash from Catherine Boylan and siphoned them to accounts belonging to friends and family.
Her unique ID number showed she had been responsible for the fraudulent transactions.
Hamilton, of Hamilton, was hauled before bank bosses and later resigned.
The bank refunded the stolen money to Boylan but has not been able to recover any of the cash.
Hamilton appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted the fraudulent scheme between March 2013 and April 2014.
Depute fiscal Neil Thomson said: "At the relevant time, the accused was employed by the TSB as bank manager and by holding this role had access to customer accounts.
"Some time after the dates libelled an individual taking care of the account belonging to Catherine Boylan, who was 68 and vulnerable, noted there were irregularities with her bank account.
"This was reported and an internal investigation was instigated which took some time to complete.
"A total of £18,000 in money had been removed from the account into accounts belonging to other persons.
"The person making the transfers was identified as being the accused through her personal ID number.
"Investigations established that account holders where money was sent were either friends or relatives of the accused."
The prosecutor added: "When this matter came to light disciplinary proceedings are instigated and the accused took legal advice and resigned.
"All money removed from the account was returned by the bank and they were the only ones to have lost out, not any individual.
"At no point during this has the accused sought to deny that she was the person who made these transactions."
Sheriff David Young QC deferred sentence until April for reports and continued her bail.
He said: "Clearly the matter you have pled guilty to is a serious matter involving a significant quantity of money.
"All options remain open to the court from the lowest to the highest up to imprisonment."
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