A bank cashier fraudster who ripped customers off to the tune f £8,850 has vowed to pay it back - with the help of his grandmother.

Former Halifax worker Joe Lennon, from Kennington near Ashford, has been jailed after siphoning the money from three victims after serving them in the Canterbury branch.

A handwritten letter from 26-year-old's gran was passed to Judge James O’Mahoney vowing to pay back the bank.

The judge at Canterbury Crown Court made a court order instructing Lennon to pay his grandmother back before locking him up.

“If you can’t trust bank staff then who can you trust?” the judge said.

“Three clients of the bank trusted you with their hard earned money. This was an extreme breach of trust, not only to those customers but also to the bank.

“I have no doubt what you did caused victims distress and concern.

“It is so serious that there must be an immediate custodial sentence.”

Lennon, who began working for the bank in 2017, remained emotionless as the sentencing was passed.

The court heard Lennon looted the three accounts, transferring their money into his personal account, between July and August last year.

Prosecutor Alec Williams told how an internal probe revealed Lennon used internal systems to transfer £6,550 from Alan Stafford’s account into his own.

He then scammed Maureen Robinson out of £1,200 and £1,100 from Deborah Boardbridge after they visited the George's Street branch.

Miss Broadbridge told the court she is “appalled at the individual’s audacity” and has since stopped using the account.

Mitigating, Emin Kabdola handed judge James O’Mahoney a letter from Lennon’s gran vowing to repay the bank.

She also highlighted Lennon’s previous good character, early guilty plea and claimed he was blackmailed by a drug dealer.

Lennon turned to selling drugs before working at the branch, however, when he stopped, a criminal blackmailed him into defrauding the bank, the barrister added.

But Judge O’Mahoney said: “That isn’t a mitigation because if you’re going to sell drugs then you’re going to meet unpleasant people.”

Lennon, of Peter Candler Way in Kennington near Ashford, was jailed for 20 months.

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