Bank manager facing prison
A BANK manager who sketched plans for a £370,000 robbery is facing a substantial jail sentence.
Rachel Shariar-Namini, 23, of Victoria Avenue, Rothwell, provided inside information about a NatWest branch where she worked to help her boyfriend rob the Hunslet branch of the bank earlier this year.
She was found guilty of robbery at Leeds Crown Court on Monday, where Judge Sally Cahill QC warned her she faced a "substantial custodial term" when she is sentenced in September.
Shariar-Namini's boyfriend William Wormald, accomplice Darren Ashcroft and getaway driver David Cowie, will also be sentenced.
It was Wormald and Ashcroft who entered the bank wearing masks on March 6, and took the money from a temporary storage area where it was waiting to be collected by Securicor.
It was said Shariar-Namini had "detailed knowledge" of the layout and procedures having previously worked at the Hunslet branch until about a month earlier when she was promoted and moved to Rothwell as manager.
Throughout the trial, the court heard how Shariar-Namini told police about a drunken night when she wrote on the robbery plans, but denied sketching them out, claiming it was her boyfriend who drew them.
The sketch, of the interior of the bank, coupled with the knowledge of when the most money would be in the bank, meant Wormald and Ashcroft were able to swiftly carry out the robbery in the storage area.
Staff were under strict instructions not to tackle robbers and the few customers in the bank at the time were unaware of what was happening.
The investigation into the robbery was wrapped up within eight days with just one lead – the robbers' getaway car registration.
Detectives went on to recover 331,000 of the stolen 370,000.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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