A corrupt NatWest employee who helped a gang of fraudsters steal more than £1mn from wealthy bank customers was jailed for five and a half years.
Said Hussain, 34, accessed 30 overseas victims' accounts and passed their details to members of an organised crime group while based at the East Ham branch in east London.
Nicholas Mather, prosecuting, said: 'The fraud involved accessing bank accounts belonging to customers using his staff entry code which gave him access to all information.
'Approximately 30 accounts were accessed unlawfully.
'A number of the accounts were held by people who lived outside the jurisdiction, the majority of which had significant balances in them.
'He deliberately targeted those accounts as they were the most likely to yield significant sums of money.
'The total value of the fraud was well in excess of £1mn.
'We can be sure that the defendant was in receipt of some of the money, at a figure of approximately £650,000.'
Hussain bought and sold high value watches, including Rolexes worth tens of thousands of pounds to launder the cash, Southwark Crown Court heard.
'The bank itself lost a significant amount of money,' said Mr Mather.
'He knew that if he passed on the bank details, others were going to use them.'
David Lyons, defending, said: 'He was the inside man for an organised crime group that was raiding the banking system on a systematic basis.'
'He wasn't the mastermind but this type of fraud cannot be committed without an inside man.
'He is of previous good character. He has now lost that good character.
'Vast areas of employment of a clerical nature are now closed to him.'
Mr Lyons claimed Hussain become involved with the OCG after becoming addicted to gambling.
'He developed a gambling habit. He decided that a few small wins was an easy way to make money.'
But he started to lose money and got into debt.
'This made him vulnerable to corruption by organised crime and that is what happened.
'He was in the grip of a gambling addiction that he could not get out from underneath.'
Sentencing Hussain, Judge Mark Weekes said: 'As an employee at the East Ham branch of NatWest you had access to accounts and access to details that you were able to feed out to what was in some form or another clearly an organised crime group.
'Anyone who has been a victim of a fraud, and has had their details released to an organised crime group will inevitably feel very significant levels of stress.
'The court must take a severe line in relation to offending of this nature.'
Said Hussain, of east London, admitted one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and one count of possession of criminal property, between January 2016 and June 2017.
