A resentful City banker paid himself more than £270,000 during a mid-life crisis as he watched younger men leap above him on the promotion ladder, was jailed for four years last Friday.

Aggrieved at being "left on the shelf", 47-year-old Derek Boe, of Barnard Road, Chelmsford, exploited his specialised knowledge of the treasury department of the Standard Chartered Bank to divert cash into his and his wife's accounts.

He splashed out on expensive home improvements, a car, caravan and holidays.

And his final sunshine break to Cyprus proved his undoing. A colleague standing in for him uncovered his dishonesty, and police were waiting at the airport on his return.

Boe admitted six fraud charges between December 1993 and April 1998, and asked for 35 similar matters to be taken into consideration.

Jailing him, Judge Nicola Davies, QC, said that it was a very grave matter. She told the father of one: 'This was a substantial breach of trust between you and your employer.

'It was a deliberate and systematic deception over a very long period of time.'

Sandy Canavan, prosecuting, said that Boe had joined the bank in 1974 and had moved to the treasury department in the City.

She said that the defendant was a signatory to company cheques and transfers but, because he was the only person who understood a complicated system in the department, colleagues would countersign without inquiry.

Boe had made full admissions and told police that none of his colleagues was involved, she said. His holiday partner had also been arrested on suspicion of fraud, but it soon became clear that the scam was engineered by Boe alone.

"He said he did not feel he was properly compensated by the bank with bonuses," said counsel.

"He also admitted he had a gambling problem, but insisted that it was not serious."

Ivor Frank, defending, said that the defendant's wife had no idea that dishonesty was afoot, and had attempted suicide on learning of her husband's plight.

He said that Boe had trained younger staff and then seen them promoted above him to earn huge bonuses.

"He felt a burning sense of resentment," said Mr Frank. "He felt he was being left on the shelf.

"He hit a mid-life crisis. He discovered that the firm was taking on a large number of much younger men. He was training them, but they were getting much better paid than he was.

"He knew the system as no one else did, and was able to exploit weaknesses in the system."

He said that Boe's wife was a registered child minder and, when she, Boe and their 17-year-old son moved home, some of the cash was used to renovate the property for her business.

Mr Frank said that his client had lost everything after his former employer took civil action to help recoup the losses.

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