A BANK cashier has been jailed for more than two years after stealing £270,000 he should have put in cash machines, then using it to pay off debts and fund family treats.

John Hobson, (pictured), who worked as a £14,000-a-year chief cashier at the Bury branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, pocketed bundles of notes as he filled up the automated machines, then altered accounts to cover his tracks as part of a six-year scam.

The 37-year-old had refused to train up a junior worker to do his job in case they saw the books and noticed the missing money. But an audit of his branch on The Rock later revealed the holes in the accounts.

He told police he needed the cash to cover debts because his wife stopped working after giving birth to their first child. But detectives examining his financial records saw he had spent large amounts on new furniture and holidays.

At Bolton Crown Court last week, the father-of-two, of Clemshaw Close, Heywood, was sentenced to two years and three months in prison after admitting theft and false accounting. Mr Jonathan Savage, prosecuting, said Hobson's responsibilities included ordering and handling large amounts of money for the branch's two cash machines, and recording the amounts in record books.

He said: "Whilst there was a requirement for two members of staff to be present when the cash that was to go into the machines was taken from a vault or safe, it was down to John Hobson to put the cash into the machines himself and make a reconciliation in the books.

"Whilst those records were checked from time to time, because of the position of trust, no physical check was made into the cash amounts recorded as balances."

The court heard how Hobson began stealing the cash in 1999 as he put bundles into the machine.

Mr Savage said Hobson initially took bundles of £1,000 on an infrequent basis. The amounts taken and frequency of thefts increased, and by October 2005 he had taken £260,000.

Hobson later completed a series of transfers worth £260,000 from the branch's cash account to a suspense account and then another suspense account in a bid to hide the cash he had taken.

He admitted to police he had stolen £270,000, telling them he took the money to cover the income lost when his wife did not return to work after the birth of their first child in 1997.

He also claimed he had large credit card bills to pay off. But when officers looked at his financial records, they saw he had also spent money on new furniture, holidays abroad and weekend breaks.

His wife, who also worked for Royal Bank of Scotland, had not been told about his actions.

Mr Mark Rhind, defending said: "His job was a great responsibility. In the circumstances that the defendant found himself in in 1999, it was a responsibility he could not handle.

"He was simply earning less than life was costing. To the outside world, it seemed to all and to his wife that this was simply a man who was, with age and experience, moving up through the bank."

Sentencing Hobson, Judge Timothy Clayson said: "You were someone who was trusted to act honestly in dealing with large sums of money.

"I am very surprised that what you were doing went undetected for such a long time.

"The shame caused to you and your family because of your actions will be a considerable consequence for them bare for many years.

"I accept that you lived under a considerable degree of stress but it was imposed upon you by your own actions."

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