A BANK worker who stole £12,000 from “vulnerable” elderly customers calling a telephone helpline has been jailed.

Noreen Javaid, 35, from Newport, “targeted” a 79-year-old woman and an 81-year-old man while working as a contractor for Lloyds Bank in Cardiff through Firstsource Solutions.

The defendant swindled the two pensioners out of £9,500 and £2,500 respectively after they had called the helpline to assist them with paying bills.

After talking with them on the phone Javaid paid money from their accounts into the bank account of her sister Sanaa Shafiq.

The defendant then asked her sibling to transfer the cash to her, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

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Javaid had lied and told her she was unable to access her own account because of bank maintenance problems and claimed the £12,000 was from a compensation claim.

Her sister Miss Shafiq, 24, of Corporation Road, Newport, was cleared of concealing, disguising, converting, transferring or removing criminal property following a trial at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court last month.

During Javaid’s sentencing, David Pugh, prosecuting, said: “The victims were of a particularly vulnerable age and they were deliberately targeted on the basis of their vulnerability.”

Javaid’s scam was spotted almost instantly and the OAPs immediately refunded the cash following a Lloyds Bank investigation.

The bank however remains £12,000 down.

Javaid, of Chepstow Road, Newport, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position with the offence taking place in April 2021.

Mr Pugh said the defendant was a woman of previous good character with no convictions recorded against her.

Matthew de Maid, representing Javaid, said in mitigation: “It remains almost a mystery and my client cannot shed any further light why at the age of 35, with no previous convictions or cautions, someone who had never been arrested, would choose to commit an offence like this.”

Her lawyer added: “This was a mean and unsavoury offence but it was an isolated incident.”

The judge, Recorder Greg Bull QC, told Javaid: “This was stealing for the sake of greed.

“It was also an attack on the integrity of the banking system.”

Javaid was jailed 12 for months

  • South Wales Police were contacted for a picture of the defendant but the force said they did not have a custody image as it was a "postal requisition" case.