Bank worker admits stealing £25k from pensioner

Published 2 Mar 2010 14:31 10 Comments

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A BANK worker has admitted stealing £25,000 from a vulnerable pensioner in the Borders.

Lesley Keown embezzled the money over a five year period while working as a personal finance advisor at the Halifax Bank of Scotland in Hawick.

The 73-year-old victim believed she had opened an account at her local branch.

But the scam only came to light when she asked why she had never been sent any statements.

Mother-of-one Keown, 38, of Croft Road, Hawick, pleaded guilty at Selkirk Sheriff Court to embezzling £25,000 between March 2004 and February 2009.

Lawyers asked for sentence to be deferred until March 29 to allow a plea of mitigation to be prepared on her behalf.

Afterwards Keown, who was wearing large-sized sunglasses, was sneaked out a court side entrance never used by the general public by her police officer husband Barrie to avoid waiting photographers.

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Brenda mack
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Mar 2, 15:40
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they want to lock her up for a few years

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Nicola
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Mar 11, 16:25
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So she is getting preferential treatment because her husband is a Police officer - thats fair isn't it. Just sums up the law in this country - CORUPT! I would expect she will be locked up anyway - it is fraud. Had she attacked comeone in the street she would have got a fine but stealing deserves jail time apparently. Surely her police officer husband noticed an extra £25,000 in their bank account!!

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Nicola
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Mar 11, 17:11
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So she is getting preferential treatment because her husband is a Police officer - thats fair isn't it. Just sums up the law in this country - CORUPT! I would expect she will be locked up anyway - it is fraud. Had she attacked comeone in the street she would have got a fine but stealing deserves jail time apparently. Surely her police officer husband noticed an extra £25,000 in their bank account!!

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Nicola
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Mar 11, 17:11
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So she is getting preferential treatment because her husband is a Police officer - thats fair isn't it. Just sums up the law in this country - CORUPT! I would expect she will be locked up anyway - it is fraud. Had she attacked comeone in the street she would have got a fine but stealing deserves jail time apparently. Surely her police officer husband noticed an extra £25,000 in their bank account!!

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brian
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Mar 15, 16:18
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and the times this lady has looked down her nose at me.

you cant tell me her husband knew nothing about it

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Alan Stewart
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Apr 1, 10:06
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The sentence that she got was laughable 8 months is deplorable .

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eleni efstathiou
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Apr 15, 10:29
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Now we're hearing that ; Due to overcrowding in Cornton Vale...she's being released after only a few weeks!

She may be on tag and put to community work upon release but I ask this: What of the other prisoners in the overcrowded Cornton Vale? Are they having a Lotto on who should be released to make space? It is another example of the British Judicial System gone mad.

This woman Lesley Keown is a threat to the Public, She preyed on an innocent member of the community, and did it over a long period of time- she had ample opportunity to be remorseful but only when caught did she do so. (crocodile tears)

Lots of us are in debt- but don't resort to this.

What she did is no less of a crime than mugging on the street- in fact the devious act she commited is worse! I hope she gets everything she deserves and is left a social leper in the Borders! Scum!!!

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Elsie
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May 2, 12:13
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This was not a one off, panic act of stealing. It was a sustained plan over a number of years to embezzzle a very large sum of money from a vulnerable elderly lady who trusted her, betraying that trust and defrauding her employers this common criminal has now been released after only a few weeks in prison. Where is the justice. It makes an absolute mockery of our justice system

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Brenda boohoo
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May 5, 15:32
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Its a joke shes only doing a few weeks i bet shes laffing her head off grrrrrrrrrrr

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borderer
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Aug 12, 22:38
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Let's get some facts straight here......early release is not due to over-crowding or any 'special treatment'.........currently, under the Scottish legal system most prisoners only serve half their sentence (apart from more serious crimes such as murder). Most prisoners are eligible to serve part of that under HCD (home detention curfew).....currently max 6 months HDC, although they are piloting longer terms at present. People are too happy to critise when they don't know full facts about the case, the person, or the legal system,

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