Bank worker stole from accounts of dead

A 28-year-old bank worker created an account under a fictitious name and put money into it from the accounts of dead people whose names he found in newspaper death notices, the Auckland District Court was told yesterday.

Judge Phil Gittos convicted Anesh Lal Budhabhai, of Mt Albert, and sentenced him to 80 hours of community service on each of four fraud charges.

Budhabhai, a former head prefect of Avondale College, pleaded guilty to the charges which related to dates in January and a total of nearly $8500.

Budhabhai's lawyer, Julian Hague, said his client had paid the money back in full.

Mr Hague said Budhabhai was not of the social milieu where a head prefect would go straight to university from school.

But he was now half way through a degree while working part-time.

Judge Gittos said Budhabhai was working as a bank officer for the WestpacTrust bank when he used his position and knowledge of the banking system to create the fictitious account.

The dead people had been customers of the bank.

Budhabhai withdrew money from the account he had created with the fictitious name.

Judge Gittos said Budhabhai must have known his actions would be uncovered.

To his credit, Budhabhai had made a prompt plea of guilty and had expressed genuine remorse.

Budhabhai was a young man who had not had a particularly advantaged background.

He had made much of his life up to the point of the "uncharacteristic lapse", Judge Gittos said.

Judge Gittos said he was not prepared to let Budhabhai go without a conviction.

It was deliberate offending, not something Budhabhai had blundered into.