Banker could not say No to clients

A BANKER who could not say “No” has been banned from working in financial affairs for five years after admitting raiding clients’ accounts to fund loans for other customers.

The 33-year-old had not been able to tell a customer at the Banque Populaire des Alpes that they had been refused a €128,000 loan so he started taking money out of another customer’s account.

The same happened with another customer looking for a loan and soon the banker was raiding eight bank accounts to keep up the pretence.

The €159,000 scam was uncovered when he was laid off for “lack of diligence” from the Saint-Martin-d'Hères (Isère) bank in 2012.

He told a court in Grenoble that he “did not want to be seen as an ‘evil banker’ by the customers” in refusing the loans.

The court heard that the man did not gain directly from the fraud and the bank admitted that the loans were being repaid satisfactorily.