A CROOKED banker who stole £250,000 from his clients to fund a lavish lifestyle has been jailed.

Andrew Barr, who worked for Barclays Bank, took the cash from the comfort of his Renfrew home by logging into the system remotely.

He processed 100 unauthorised transactions of £2,500 in the space of just a few weeks and transferred the cash into accounts belonging to him and his wife.

Barr, who worked as a private client service manager, making payments on behalf of customers, pleaded guilty to a charge of embezzlement during a hearing at Paisley Sheriff Court last month.

The court heard that an investigations team from Barclays became aware there had been an internal fraud.

During their probe, it emerged Barr had transferred the sums to accounts in his own name and that of his wife, Laura Jane.

Barr, who had been employed by Barclays since January 2007, exploited his flexible working hours and accessed the banking systems while at his former home in Moorpark Square, Renfrew.

He used his own username and password to access the bank’s system and was charged with stealing almost £500,000.

However, he pleaded guilty to swiping £250,000.

The court was told the bank was able to recover the majority of the cash, with around £45,000 unaccounted for.

Sentence was deferred for background reports to be prepared and 32-year-old Barr returned to the dock last week to learn his fate.

Defence solicitor Gordon Ritchie said Barr had taken the money to try to appease his wife by ensuring she had cash to spend on “quite expensive tastes.”

The lawyer added: “I am not trying to put the blame onto his wife but the fact is they enjoyed a certain lifestyle and a certain standard of living. He thought that, if he was not able to provide that standard of living for her, she would leave him.

“He took full control of the family finances. He was able to hide from her the full extent of the finances.”

Mr Ritchie added that Barr’s wife did leave him after learning about their money troubles and the court case.

He asked Sheriff David Pender to spare Barr a prison sentence, saying his intelligence and skill set could be of use to the community.

The lawyer suggested that Barr, now living in Glasgow, could be given a Community Payback Order which would see him doing unpaid work and allow him to try to pay back the £45,000 the bank was unable to recover.

However, Sheriff Pender ordered Barr to spend 18 months in prison, with the sentence being reduced from two years as he had admitted his guilt.

As he did so, he told Barr: “You are a well-educated, professional person from a good family.

“As a consequence, perhaps, of that background and good family, you found yourself in a very good job with a position of responsibility and a position of trust.

“It is quite clear you abused that trust.

“You had a very good lifestyle – a lifestyle you really couldn’t afford.

“There’s no other way of dealing with this matter other than by a period of imprisonment.”