AN Oxford bank clerk and two fellow employees face a retrial over an alleged £2m scam after jurors failed to reach verdicts.
Tai Hulbert-Thomas, 27, Neil Bautista, 22, and Mawli Thurairajah, 30, were accused of making transfers using stolen log-in details.
Rogue devices were installed on computers at Halifax branches in Newbury, Slough and Camden, London, to steal funds, it was alleged.
Hulbert-Thomas, of Carlton Road, Oxford, denied two counts of fraud by abuse of position by installing the device.
The Newbury branch employee told jurors he was threatened by the “Russian mafia” and “didn’t want to put himself at risk”.
But jurors were yesterday discharged following a five-week trial at the Old Bailey, after failing to reach any verdicts. A second trial will take place next January.
It was alleged the £2,036,500 included £627,500 from the Newbury branch.
Bautista, 23, of Northumberland Road, Maidenhead admitted involvement but said he was blackmailed by a gang and told his mother would be killed.
He denied making fraudulent payments of £605,000 and of allowing another person to install a device on the bank’s computer.
Thurairajah, of Moelyn Mews, Harrow, denied making fraudulent payments totalling £804,000.
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