Barclays bank cashiers who stole nearly £150,000 jailed

Ahmed (left) and Nadeem were only caught after Ahmed tried to take thousands of pounds from a dead man's account

Two bank cashiers who stole nearly £150,000 from customers' accounts have been jailed.

Waseem Ahmed and Hodaif Nadeem, both 22 and from Slough, worked as apprentices at Barclays' Slough and Bracknell branches.

Thames Valley Police said the pair often defrauded customers who were either elderly or living abroad.

The crimes were only uncovered after Ahmed tried to steal more than £40,000 from a dead man's account.

Barclays said protecting customers was its "top priority" and that it had a "zero tolerance" to fraud.

Det Con Rob Gibson said: "Although the means used to select their victims was never established, they were generally elderly or overseas customers.

"Ahmed and Nadeem had full access to customers' bank accounts and there was nothing that the victims could have done to prevent their accounts being defrauded.

"The most despicable act concerned Ahmed, who raided the bank account of a man whom he knew was deceased, thereby holding up probate for his grieving relatives."

Ahmed was jailed for four-and-a-half years on Friday after he was found guilty at Reading Crown Court in November.

He was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud, one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property by means of fraudulent money transfers and one count of unauthorised access to a computer.

Nadeem was jailed for three-and-a-half years after being convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud and one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property by means of fraudulent money transfers.