A FORMER bank worker who defrauded multiple victims out of hundreds of thousands of pounds has been ordered to pay back a nominal amount of £1.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Annabelle Allan, who appeared via video link from HMP Askham Grange near York, had benefited by £717,507.50 after setting up a sophisticated fake share scheme.

The 29-year-old mother-of-two was dismissed by Lloyds in 2019 when the scale of her fraud became known.

She was jailed for four years in June this year.

Her Honour Judge Kirstie Watson made a confiscation order after hearing that Allan had voluntarily repaid around £357,000 in relation to the bank fraud and that the total remaining benefit was £377,942.45.

She noted that the amount available to the court was £1 and made a confiscation order for the sum of £1, payable within 28 days.

Allan was working in IT at Lloyds in Halifax when she created a detailed and convincing fake Lloyds share scheme that she used to get family, friends, and associates to invest tens of thousands of pounds in using her IT job as a cover.

She supported her deception by sending fake emails and messages from a fictitious person at Lloyds called 'Declan Bishop'.

Five victims paid more than £278,000 into the fake scheme. Some people received a return, but the deception meant that money was other people’s investments.

One woman handed over her life savings.

During more than two years, starting in January 2017 Allan received a total of £495,771.33.

The police began investigating Allan in January 2019. She was dismissed by Lloyds in April that year - after she admitted opening accounts in her brother’s name.

Lloyds has since compensated five of Allan’s victims to the tune of £258,936. Having recovered £18,000 of that from Allan’s pension the bank was still owed more than £240,000 as of June this year.

Whilst on bail Allan worked in car sales and in 2023 sold three vehicles to buyers under her company’s name but had payments made into her personal bank account, netting her more than £37,000. Two of the vehicles were never delivered.

Allan, formerly of Buxton Street, Lee Mount, Halifax, was said to have taken out a payday loan when she was 18 that plunged her into “a vicious cycle of debt” and that ultimately led to her abusing her position of trust at the bank by committing fraud.

On jailing her in June Mr Recorder Bryan Cox KC told Allan that her deception showed “a considerable degree of sophistication” and that she had abused her position at Lloyds Bank to extract money from friends, family, and other acquaintances.

He said: “Your ability to perpetrate this offending shows a high degree of callousness and disregard for the lives of other people, some of whom you purported to be in friendship with.

“You were tricking people and misleading them to part with substantial sums of money.”