Bank fraudster who fleeced his customers out of £355k to feed gambling addiction

George Simpson pleaded guilty last year to swindling hundreds of thousands of pounds from customers at Santander Bank.

But after a hearing at Antrim Crown Court this week, it emerged for the first time he was hopelessly addicted to gambling and had effectively been “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

He told the Sunday World this week there was much more behind him simply ripping off customers of the global financial institution where he had been a highly respected personal banker.

And he lamented that reports he had simply robbed the money from his clients had resulted in him losing a new job he had secured after admitting the thefts.

The 37-year-old from Ballymadigan Road, Castlerock, Co Derry, said he didn’t want to say too much until he has been sentenced – though it’s a strong possibility he could be going to jail when he appears at Antrim Crown Court in a fortnight to learn his fate.

“I’m not blaming you, but what’s been written before has resulted in me losing my job,” he explained from his doorstep.

“What has appeared already in the papers is not the full story. There’s a lot more behind it but I can’t speak about it until after the sentencing.”

Northern Ireland has one of the highest rates of gambling in the UK.

While the total figure swindled by Simpson was £355,096, the fraudster had redeposited £180,280, which left the bank suffering a loss of £174,816.

Though he had taken the money from Santander’s customers, the bank had repaid all of them, meaning it was his employer who was ultimately the victim to his thefts.

This week, Antrim Crown Court heard that Simpson was “robbing Peter to pay Paul” but he was snared when the executor of a dead man’s will noticed anomalies in the estate.

He offered guilty pleas to six charges of fraud by abuse of position in that between May 15 and October 31, 2015, he abused his position as a personal banker with Santander PLC to transfer money to his own account.

Prosecuting counsel Mark Farrell told the court how Simpson had been in a “privileged position” in the bank and as such, had access to computer systems and “financial instruments”.

One of those instruments was financial bonds, where a customer lodges a set amount of money for a fixed time with a specific set of interest to be paid at the end if it.

Abusing the access he had, Simpson cashed in half a dozen bonds and paid the money into his own Nationwide account, said Mr Farrell.

Although the offending took place in 2015, the court heard it only came to light in January 2020 when the executor of a dead man’s estate spotted that a bond “had been cashed in early”.

Mr Farrell said that sparked an internal investigation, which then uncovered Simpson’s other offending.

He explained that while the total figure swindled by Simpson was £355,096, the fraudster had redeposited £180,280, which left the bank suffering a loss of £174,816.

Mr Farrell said that as a “large banking group in Europe”, Santander had made restitution to the defrauded customers, so it was the bank who is at a loss, not any of the fraud victims.

Arrested and interviewed in September 2020, Simpson “made full admissions” and told cops he had a gambling problem.

“He has basically indicated that he had gambled the money trying to make good on his losses, robbing Peter to pay Paul effectively,” said Mr Farrell.

He told Judge Roseanne McCormick while Simpson maintained that he “hoped to pay the money back, really we say that he is a man of straw and is someone without significant assets”.

Turning to the facts to be taken into account in assessing the sentence, Mr Farrell said that given the “gross breach of trust... we say culpability is high” but in mitigation, he had cooperated in an investigation that “would’ve been made difficult” and had admitted his guilt at the first opportunity.

Defence counsel Jonathan Browne said that since the offences were uncovered and his banking career came to an abrupt end, Simpson has been working for Translink and has been trying to deal with his gambling addiction.

Judge McCormick said given that a “central plank” of the plea in mitigation, seeking to persuade the judge “to take a departure from what would usually be an inevitable outcome”, was what steps Simpson had taken to address his gambling problem, she would adjourn the case to February 21 to allow time for the defence team to gather together whatever supporting documents they needed.

Simpson was freed on bail.

According to a prevalence study published in 2017, Northern Ireland has one of the highest rates of gambling in the UK – at more than 67 per cent compared to more than 61 per cent in Wales and 62 per cent in England.

In 2021, a leading expert called for more support to be given to gambling addicts in Northern Ireland.

Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE, consultant psychiatrist and spokesperson on behavioural addictions for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “Northern Ireland has one of the highest rates of gambling in the UK, so it’s concerning that there are still no specific services in place for those in need of treatment for gambling disorder.

“Gambling disorder has a devastating impact on individuals and families. People feel trapped and sometimes their gambling can get out of control leading to severe mental illness as well as suicidal thinking.

“We need to acknowledge gambling disorder as a mental illness and treat it accordingly, in an evidence-based way within an NHS setting.”