No nonsense Judge Anthony Pitts jailed a Gang who stole £15m from Natwest through banking flaw jailed for total of 20 years

Four crooked businessmen who exploited a flaw in the banking system to steal more than £15million from Natwest were jailed for a total of more than 20 years today.

The gang realised they could exploit the clearing system with a string of worthless cheques following the high street bank's takeover by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2002.

During a single May bank holiday weekend they transferred millions of pounds to overseas bank accounts, Southwark Crown Court heard.

The fraudsters moved money from UK bank accounts to Riga, in Latvia, but the flow was intercepted before it could reach its intended Dubai destination.

Major player Lee Quincey, 41, was jailed for five years and 11 months, company directors Darren Lee, 35 and Martin Williams, 29, each received five years and nine months and 38-year-old errand boy Ian Clark, was handed three years.

Passing sentence Judge Anthony Pitts told the four: "It was a serious criminal agreement to which conspirators attached themselves, a plan to steal many millions of pounds from Natwest bank.

"The planners and organisers attempted to take over £20million of the bank's money and succeeded in transferring over £15million away from the bank, of which £13.5million ended up in a bank account in Latvia on its way to Dubai.

"At some stage after Natwest was taken over by RBS, the fraudsters identified a potential weakness in the way that Natwest allowed business customers to pay out money to their suppliers using the computer system.

"Natwest rather helpfully told all its business clients using the system that after two days all credited funds would show on the computer as being available.

"The bank obviously expected their business clients to be honest and placed misplaced confidence in the system and stop payment of uncleared funds."

The letter read: 'Please note that funds will be showed as cleared on the third working day. Cheques can still be returned unpaid after this date and you should continue to allow at least four working days for cheques paid in to be returned unpaid.'

The 2002 letter 'alerted' the fraudsters to the loophole which meant funds which showed up on computer screen even though the money had was not actually in the account.

The money was taken from a branch in St Helens, Merseyside, and transferred to the Eastern European accounts.

The gang targeted the St Helens branch it is one of the bank's largest business centres with a gold bullion bay and facilities for handling millions of pounds. But on May 1, 2004, Latvia became a member of the EU, and, unknown to the fraudsters, the country had adopted strict money laundering rules.

Williams, Clark and Lee, who claimed they were acting in good faith, were found guilty of the plot earlier this month following a three-month trial.

Quincey admitted his role last October after his fingerprints were found on a number of the cheque and credit slips paid in at the bank.

Judge Pitts told him: "You were highly involved in all aspects of the fraud."

Companies involved included Bootle-based Britanniacity Ltd, which banked at the St Helens branch and was run by Williams and Lee.

The court heard the company, which traded mainly in high value mobile phones, was an 'obvious' account to use because it had been receiving transfers for years of vast sums of money stretching into millions.

Judge Pitts told Williams and Lee: "It seems there is an element of breach of trust because you knew the business managers personally and you were exploiting that trust in order to make this work."

Clark had the 'limited but crucial' role of paying in cheques. The cheques would then show up on the system and on the third day that amount could be transferred away.

The gang paid in bogus cheques for millions of pounds, withdrawing the money before the bank could return the cheques.

Another man, Jonathan Quinn, 45, from Nottingham, was responsible for the Latvian account.

Quinn, who was known as 'Donny', travelled to Latvia on numerous occasions. A bank account was opened in Riga in the name of Alverton Finance Ltd and its sole beneficiary and signatory was 'Donny Quinn'.

More than £13.5million of the money was transferred into that account. Quinn pleaded guilty to the conspiracy last September and was sentenced to three years. He was already serving an 18-year term for importing cannabis into the UK.

Gang members pointed the finger of blame at self-confessed conman Quinn, claiming he 'duped' them into making the transactions telling them they were legitimate. City of London Police managed to recover more than 95 per cent of the laundered money.

Jonathan Shawcross, director of group security and fraud at RBS, said outside court: "Financial crime does not pay. Our systems for detecting fraudulent activity are more sophisticated than they've ever been and as this case demonstrates the police will pursue those who perpetuate fraud relentlessly."

Clark, from Paisley, Scotland; Lee and Williams from Liverpool denied one count of a conspiracy to steal from NatWest bank between April 30 and May 4, 2004.

Quincey, of Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester, admitted a like offence.