Organised gangs target high street banks

Organised criminals have infiltrated high street banks, a City of London detective is warning.

Detective Chief Superintendent Ken Farrow today claimed that a new generation of criminals was targeting retail banks across the country, gaining confidential account details by posing as temporary bank employees.

Once employed, they approached members of staff and offered bribes or resorted to blackmail to elicit account numbers.

He said: "It's the pressure and competitiveness of banking that is making this happen now. It happens because some manager is trying to find people for a key launch as quickly as possible and there are difficulties vetting them. The banking industry is being swept away by short-termism."

Of the 350 cases he was currently investigating, "a very significant number" involved insiders, he said.

New security measures introduced under the chip and pin debit and credit card system would only worsen the problem, Mr Farrow said, since it made using other people's cards much more difficult, necessitating more inside information.