A TRUSTED building society cashier who helped herself to thousands of pounds from the accounts of vulnerable customers has been locked up.
Kelly Kershaw, of Stryd y Llan in Nefyn, appeared at Caernarfon Crown Court for sentence on Friday morning.
The 54-year-old had previously admitted five offences of fraud by abuse of position.
Elen Owen, prosecuting, told the court that Kershaw is originally from Cheshire - having moved to Caernarfon in 2020.
She was transferred from the Northwich branch of Nationwide (where she had worked since 2008) to the Pool Street branch in Caernarfon.
That particular branch, Ms Owen said, has a high number of vulnerable customers due to age, disability or other vulnerabilities.
Kershaw's co-workers noticed she appeared to live "a lavish lifestyle" - regularly going abroad on holiday or carrying out otherwise "extravagant spending."
A financial investigator for Nationwide looked into the concerns and found a number of concerning irregularities surrounding Kershaw.
Over a period of around 11 months, starting in December 2023, the defendant fraudulently took a total of £8,605 from the bank accounts of five vulnerable customers.
Those she targeted were mostly elderly people, with victim being an adult with a learning difficulties who "somewhat ironically" had his bank card held by the branch for safety after being defrauded previously.
Her methods entailed forging signatures of the affected customers on withdrawal slips, as well as giving the victims the amount of money they had asked for but removing more, which she pocketed.
Once the internal investigation was complete, she was interviewed and made admissions - which resulted in North Wales Police being informed.
When later interviewed by officers, she explained what she'd done, as well as confirming she knew each of her victims' vulnerabilities.
The building society did reimburse those affected, Ms Owen said.
Kershaw had no previous convictions or cautions.
Amy Edwards, defending, said: "Nothing I say today on behalf of Mrs Kershaw is intended to minimise the harm that came to the victims of her offending.
"This morning, Ms Kershaw made it clear she wanted to make contributions to compensation, to personally reimburse all of the victims she defrauded.
"She pleaded guilty to all offence at the first hearing and apologises - it is out of character.
"This offending arose out of a period of poor mental and physical health.
"Whilst it is no excuse, she was suffering through a period of loneliness; her husband works away.
"Her state worsened and she developed a compulsive spending addiction. She describes this period of her life as a blur.
"She doesn't recognise the person she was at the time."
Ms Edwards said her client had since sought assistance to address her issues, including mental health support, and is now "in a completely different state to that which she was during the offending."
She continued: "She's ashamed of her actions. She left the bank of her own accord because of that shame."
But Judge Timothy Petts interjected: "Well, she was suspended wasn't she? She left Nationwide because she'd been suspended after making admissions in interview after being caught. She was never going to go back."
Ms Edwards also asked the court to take into account that a period of imprisonment would leave her husband in severe difficulty as her income (now as an employee of a cleaning company) is required to help her husband pay their bills and mortgage.
However, once again the Judge challenged the statement - explaining such difficulties were not raised when the defendant had her Probation Service interview.
He said he did not accept the claim, as her husband "earns much more than she used to, let alone now."
Addressing the defendant, Judge Petts told her: "It has been said that you don't recognise the person who did this.
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"But the reality is, if you steal so much money from so many people - this is the person you are.
"You only stopped because suspicions were raised about your lifestyle and the fraud was discovered.
"In the pre-sentence report, you blamed your issues with loneliness and mental health.
"The reality is, your motivation was greed. You stole from customers because you could and then spent the money on treats an holidays to make yourself feel better."
Judge Petts said while he acknowledged there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation, he did not find the defendant had particularly strong personal mitigation - and significantly, the court had to act to deter others from behaving in such a way in future.
He added that if someone in her position of responsibility and trust could 'skim off more than £8,000 apparently without consequence' against such vulnerable customers, confidence and trust in financial institutions would be shaken.
As such, the Judge handed down an immediate custodial sentence of 16 months, as well as setting a proceeds of crime act timetable.
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