An Irish bank has drawn criticism for firing a worker who revealed a senior official’s widespread theft.
Ulster Bank has drawn criticism after firing a whistle-blower who caught and turned in a senior official who stole tens of thousands of euros.
The official helped himself to thousands of euro from customers' accounts as well as cash he received from clients to pay off loans. The money was used to fund gambling sprees and luxury vacations, according to local news reports.
He also helped himself to an illegal loan during a gambling spree on the horses.
But instead of supporting a member of staff whose diligence led to the detection, Ulster Bank fired her, it has been alleged.
The bank launched an internal investigation several years ago after a customer rang the branch asking why thousands of euro he had given the corrupt official had not been taken off a loan. The customer had given the cash to the official, but the transaction had failed to appear on a bank statement.
The investigation found cash had been taken out of another customer's accounts and that the official had deceived other members of staff to authorise transactions in order to get his hands on the cash.
Sources inside the Ulster Bank told the Sunday Independent that the member of staff who found the discrepancies later suffered severe stress as a result of the investigation.
Several months later, staff were told the corrupt official would not be returning to the bank and to "forget about it''.
The accusations follow a similar case at the same bank, this time at a Northern Ireland branch. A tribunal recently rewarded a former Ulster Bank employee £29,000 (CAN$50,000) after he was made a scapegoat when he turned in a colleague who stole up to £500,000 (CAN$875,000) from the bank’s vault.
