Co Derry banker charged with transferring more than £500,000 to own account

Although he did not appear at Coleraine Magistrate’s Court, sitting in Ballymena, 36-year-old George Simpson was charged with eight offences including seven of fraud by abusing the position of trust he held with Santander PLC and one of converting criminal property, all allegedly committed on dates between 15 May and 31 October 2015.

None of the facts were opened but the particulars of the offences accuse Simpson that working as a “personal banker” for Santander, he abused his position to transfer funds from the accounts of seven different customers to his own account amounting to a total of £507,273.

Simpson, from the Ballymadigan Road in Castlerock, was further accused of converting £355,114 of criminal property but it is not clear if that sum is included in or is separate from the money in the fraud charges.

Defence counsel Jonathan Browne suggested the case “doesn’t appear to me, on the face of it, to be a straight forward case” and granting legal aid, District Judge Peter King agreed as “these are significant amounts - it’s far from a straight forward case.”

Adjourning the case to 7 April, he told Mr Browne “I will give you as much time as you require to go through the papers - they’re not voluminous but they’re complex.”