Hainault bank manager fleeced friends and family out of £200,000 to buy ‘happy life’

Debra Cox, 37, secretly applied for personal loans in the names of her in-laws and “drip-fed” most of the cash into the account of her mum Carol Collier, 56, both of Huntsman Road, Hainault

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard the pair used the money to “enjoy the good life” with regular holidays in the sun.

Cox worked as a financial planning manager then as a retail branch manager in Chingford between June 2002 and September 2008.

She was later employed as a mortgage manager in central London until February 2010.

Prosecutor Michelle Fawcett told the court Cox was dismissed from HSBC bank for gross misconduct in February 2010.

She added: “Four months later her ex-husband, Dave Cox, contacted the fraud investigations department of HSBC in relation to a number of suspicious transactions identified on accounts held by his family and close friends.”

Mr Cox’s parents, Christine and Keith, were the first to fall foul of the scam, followed by his brother, Robert, and family friends Stephen and Lorraine Edwards.

“In short, the investigation identified that Debra Cox had opened a series of fraudulent mortgages, personal loans and secondary bank accounts in those people’s names,” Ms Fawcett added.

HSBC has since reimbursed all the victims of the fraud which ran from October 2006 to June 2010.

After a four-week trial Cox was found guilty of 24 counts of fraud by false representation and two counts of obtaining money by deception and was jailed for four years.

Collier was convicted of five counts of converting criminal property and a single count of possessing criminal property and jailed for 15 months.

They both denied the charges.