This is Leicestershire --
A "thoroughly dishonest" village bank manager has been jailed after stealing more than £318,000.
Celia Valerie Zarebska (52), who worked at Santander, in Barrow upon Soar, took money from customers' accounts and issued false bond certificates to cover her tracks.
At least one of her victims was living in a care home.
Zarebska pleaded guilty at Leicester Crown Court to nine dishonesty offences – five of defrauding individual accounts and four of false accounting – committed over an eight-year period, from 2004 to 2012.
She was sentenced to three years and four months in prison yesterday.
Prosecutor Jonathan Dunne said Zarebska, of Breadcroft Lane, Barrow, was taken on to manage an agency branch of Alliance & Leicester at the end of 2003, by a family friend who ran an investment and pensions business in another part of the High Street building.
She had previously run a similar agency branch of the bank in Nottingham.
Mr Dunne said Zarebska ran the branch "pretty much on her own, sole discretion".
He said the bank became a central part of village life.
"No-one had any issues with Mrs Zarebska," he said. "She was a good family friend and trusted completely."
When Alliance & Leicester was taken over by Santander, Zarebska continued to manage the branch. Mr Dunne said her criminal activities came to light when the niece of a customer contacted the bank's head office to complain about irregularities in her 99-year-old aunt's account.
When an investigation was carried out, Zarebska denied any involvement.
"She said if there were any irregularities they must be down to family members," the court was told.
Mr Dunne said the family friend who had initially taken on Zarebska did not believe the accusations. When Santander took the bank keys from her, he continued to employ her in his own business.
"He only realised he had been taken in when shown a letter to one of the victims written and signed by him – he said he had not written it," said Mr Dunne.
Santander has compensated their customers' losses.
Jonathan Eley, for Zarebska, said his client had not deliberately plan the eight-year fraud but once the dishonesty had started, she found she could not stop and had tried to hide her tracks.
He said most of the money had been transferred to her son, who had been in "a cash shortfall" for seven or eight years, with some used to care for her father, who suffered from Parkinson's disease.
"From being a respectable, well-liked member of the community, she has become reviled and rejected," said Mr Eley.
Judge Simon Hammond said Zarebska's actions were "sophisticated well-planned fraud by a bank manager".
"It was a gross abuse of trust of her employers and gross abuse of trust of her customers," said the judge.
"She is a thoroughly dishonest person."
After the hearing, Steve Chappell, chief crown prosecutor for CPS East Midlands, said: "Celia Zarebska conducted an eight-year campaign of dishonesty.
"She stole from and defrauded the customers and the bank, all of whom had placed their trust in her, using her knowledge of the system to try and cover her tracks.
"The CPS has instigated proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act. We will work with the court and financial investigators to identify and secure any assets she has to ensure she does not continue to profit from her crimes."
Santander declined to comment about the result. Reported by This is 13 hours ago.
A "thoroughly dishonest" village bank manager has been jailed after stealing more than £318,000.
Celia Valerie Zarebska (52), who worked at Santander, in Barrow upon Soar, took money from customers' accounts and issued false bond certificates to cover her tracks.
At least one of her victims was living in a care home.
Zarebska pleaded guilty at Leicester Crown Court to nine dishonesty offences – five of defrauding individual accounts and four of false accounting – committed over an eight-year period, from 2004 to 2012.
She was sentenced to three years and four months in prison yesterday.
Prosecutor Jonathan Dunne said Zarebska, of Breadcroft Lane, Barrow, was taken on to manage an agency branch of Alliance & Leicester at the end of 2003, by a family friend who ran an investment and pensions business in another part of the High Street building.
She had previously run a similar agency branch of the bank in Nottingham.
Mr Dunne said Zarebska ran the branch "pretty much on her own, sole discretion".
He said the bank became a central part of village life.
"No-one had any issues with Mrs Zarebska," he said. "She was a good family friend and trusted completely."
When Alliance & Leicester was taken over by Santander, Zarebska continued to manage the branch. Mr Dunne said her criminal activities came to light when the niece of a customer contacted the bank's head office to complain about irregularities in her 99-year-old aunt's account.
When an investigation was carried out, Zarebska denied any involvement.
"She said if there were any irregularities they must be down to family members," the court was told.
Mr Dunne said the family friend who had initially taken on Zarebska did not believe the accusations. When Santander took the bank keys from her, he continued to employ her in his own business.
"He only realised he had been taken in when shown a letter to one of the victims written and signed by him – he said he had not written it," said Mr Dunne.
Santander has compensated their customers' losses.
Jonathan Eley, for Zarebska, said his client had not deliberately plan the eight-year fraud but once the dishonesty had started, she found she could not stop and had tried to hide her tracks.
He said most of the money had been transferred to her son, who had been in "a cash shortfall" for seven or eight years, with some used to care for her father, who suffered from Parkinson's disease.
"From being a respectable, well-liked member of the community, she has become reviled and rejected," said Mr Eley.
Judge Simon Hammond said Zarebska's actions were "sophisticated well-planned fraud by a bank manager".
"It was a gross abuse of trust of her employers and gross abuse of trust of her customers," said the judge.
"She is a thoroughly dishonest person."
After the hearing, Steve Chappell, chief crown prosecutor for CPS East Midlands, said: "Celia Zarebska conducted an eight-year campaign of dishonesty.
"She stole from and defrauded the customers and the bank, all of whom had placed their trust in her, using her knowledge of the system to try and cover her tracks.
"The CPS has instigated proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act. We will work with the court and financial investigators to identify and secure any assets she has to ensure she does not continue to profit from her crimes."
Santander declined to comment about the result. Reported by This is 13 hours ago.