9:03am Tuesday 27th March 2012
A BANK manager from East Yorkshire who confessed to stealing more than £100,000 from his customers before a failed suicide bid has been jailed for 21 months.
Owen Danter, 33, a former Conservative Party official, pleaded guilty to nine counts of theft from elderly customers of the Driffield branch of Santander, formerly the Alliance & Leicester.
Hull Crown Court heard how Danter stole a total of £107,000 from the accounts of five elderly customers, and the branch's cash machine between 2007 and 2011.
The thefts came to light after Danter attempted suicide at a forest in North Yorkshire. He was reported missing in July last year, by his family, on the day auditors were due to carry out an investigation following a complaint against the bank.
Jailing him, Judge Jeremy Baker, QC, said he had committed a “deliberate deception”.
The court was told Danter, of Copandale Road, Beverley, was an alcoholic who used the funds to maintain his lifestyle. He hoped to pay back the stolen money before his clients noticed but things got “completely out of his control”, the court heard.
Speaking after the case, Detective Sergeant John Meagher said Danter targeted elderly customers deliberately "because he thought they wouldn't notice the money going missing".
The bank has fully reimbursed the victims.
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