Published: Tuesday, 2nd March, 2010 2:31pm

Bank worker admits stealing £25k from pensioner

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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