Crooked bank cashier tells judge 'You can't send me to prison - it will violate my baby's human rights' (before she is locked up)

Scam: Nicola Hurley arrives at the Old Bailey, where she was sentenced to 27 months for an £800,000 fraud

A crooked bank cashier who helped a fraud gang steal £800,000 has argued she cannot be sent to jail because it would breach her baby's human rights.



However, the brazen defence tactic employed by Nicola Hurley, 23, was rejected out of hand by a High Court judge and she was jailed for 27 months for her part in the scam at a London branch of Halifax.



Hurley was one of three computer operators recruited by crooks to pass on information relating to wealthy customers' accounts.



She had been working at the Oxford Street branch of Halifax for a just a few months when the fraudulent activity was discovered.



Two sisters lost nearly £400,000 in the scam, with another nine customers also losing money.



But earlier this year Hurley tried to get a High Court injunction banning an Old Bailey judge from sentencing her on the grounds it was against her 10-month old son's human rights.



Hurley claimed that sending her to prison would be unfair to her child and the only way to overcome this was for the baby to be represented by its own barrister.



Peter Ratcliffe, defending, said: 'This court has a duty to protect the child's rights under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act.'



He said the baby was still breast fed and had not reacted well to three different types of powered milk.



Mr Ratcliffe said the court did not have 'full or best information' to understand the psychological or physical impact on the baby if it were to be separated from Hurley.



However, the judge, Recorder Noel Lucas QC, told Hurley: 'I am against you.



Justice: The statue on top of the Old Bailey, where Hurley's trial was heard

'It appears leading counsel was instructed on behalf of your child and sought to injunct this court from passing sentence and thereafter an order had been sought from the High Court to entertain submissions on behalf of your child represented separately.



'The High Court disallowed the application.'



The judge said a criminal trial was between the Crown and the defendant and to allow the interests of each concerned party to become involved would cause endless problems.

'If you were to consider but for a moment the consequences to the system where the rights of children were permitted, in circumstances such as this one, you might have a situation where women with children are targeted to commit crime so that on detection they would not go to prison.'



He said the potential for 'injustice' was great.



After hearing evidence from Hurley's mum, Maxine, the judge was told the baby is now also eating solids and only 'supplemented with breast feed'.



Bank job: The Halifax branch on Oxford Street where Hurley worked and committed the fraud

'She is, as are most children her age, attached to her mother.'



He added that Hurley, who managed to get a job with the Department for Work and Pensions as a single parent benefits adviser after being sacked from HBOS, was planning to go back to work soon anyway.



Recorder Lucas said in his view Hurley took the job with the bank 'to do precisely what she did'.



'You entered a deliberate and persistent campaign with others to divulge details from HBOS so those accounts could depleted.



'This was a breach of trust.'



The court heard eleven people were fleeced during the fraud, including the two sisters who had to be refunded by HBOS.



'All of the cases involve cashiers working for Halifax Bank of Scotland, Abbey and Lloyds TSB.



'The cashiers produced security details of customers with substantial cash in their accounts,' prosecutor Jennifer Knight said.



'The banking is such that all computer activity undertaken within it is captured and stored indefinitely. Staff are compelled to change their password every 28 days.



'The Halifax computer system enables cashiers such as Nicola Hurley to obtain full details of all customers. This enables withdrawal.'



The maximum amount in cash available for withdrawal per day at a branch is £1,200 and extra security questions have to be asked for transfers above £2,000.



Hurley started work at the Oxford Street branch of Halifax on January 7, 2008 and began searching for rich victims.



The court heard she 'would look the customers in their eyes before going behind their back and stealing from them'.



By April that year the bank had become aware of fraudulent activity on three customer accounts.



An investigation began and linked the thefts to the viewing of security information by Hurley.



Every time she entered a customer's account this would be logged on the system and investigators soon discovered that in each case, Hurley had been poking around in the accounts.



'She was the only person who had performed enquiries on every one of the accounts, she was the common link,' the prosecutor said.



When she was questioned by bosses and later police, she denied that any of her account activities had been dishonest.



But a series of text messages found on her phone made her guilt clear.



In one she asked: 'Just wanted to know it is a guaranteed withdrawal, don't mean to be bugging but I have kind of spent it in my mind already.'



She received a minimum of £3,800 from the scam.



Ms Knight said: 'The gross loss to Halifax Bank of Scotland before any money was recovered was £831,747. The net loss was £610,794.'



Elaine Wild lost over £48,000 after visiting the Oxford Street branch on March 3 to withdraw just £150.



Hurley carried out unnecessary enquiries on her account and continued to look at them once she had served another customer.



On March 28 an impersonator went to the Winchester branch and deposited £30 - to make sure the system worked - before transferring £42,000 to a Nationwide bank account.



Further cash withdrawals of £1,200 a time were made between March 31 and April 4 before Miss Wild checked her account at her local Liverpool branch.



Sisters Mary and Catherine Fitzgerald lost nearly £400,000 after visiting the Oxford Street branch on April 2, 2008, to update their passbooks.



On June 16 a fraudster deposited £25 in Catherine Fitzgerald's account before transferring £139,000 to Italy. Four days later another £92,000 was sent from Ms Fitzgerald's account.



Then on June 25 £150,000 was transferred from Mary's account to Catherine Fitzgerald's account, allowing another £155,000 to be sent to Italy the next day.



Hurley, of Brixton, South London, admitted conspiracy to defraud.

