Fraudsters who cheated Barclays Bank customers out of £150,000 while working as apprentice cashiers have been jailed.

Waseem Ahmed, 22, of Lismore Park, Slough and Hodaif Nadeem, 22 of Telford Drive, Slough, carried out the frauds at Barclays Bank branches in Slough and Bracknell.

Ahmed was jailed for four and a half years, while Nadeem was jailed for three and a half years at Reading Crown Court on Friday after an eight day trial.

A jury found Ahmed guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud, one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property through fraudulent money transfers and one count of unauthorised access to a computer.

Nadeem was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud and one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property fraudulently.

Through April and May 2017, the defendants transferred just under £150,000 of customers' money into ‘mule’ accounts.

They also conducted fraudulent transactions over the counter handing thousands of pounds over to people who were very obviously not the account holders.

During the last week of July 2017 both Ahmed and Nadeem each opened another five bank accounts at different banks. Ahmed’s accounts were used to funnel £29,030 of stolen funds to other bank accounts, continuing even after he had been arrested.

The matter came to light after Ahmed conducted just over £40,000 worth of transactions from the account of a deceased man.

He was arrested on August 8, 2017, while Nadeem was arrested on January 19, 2018.

They were charged with the offences on August 15 last year.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Rob Gibson said: “Although the means used to select their victims was never established, they were generally elderly and, or based overseas customers. Ahmed and Nadeem had full access to customers’ bank accounts and there was nothing that the victims could have done to prevent their accounts being defrauded.

“The most despicable act concerned Ahmed who raided the bank account of a man whom he knew was deceased, thereby holding up probate for his grieving relatives.

“Despite having been arrested on the August 8, 2017, Ahmed committed further offences by allowing bank accounts he held in his name to be used to funnel several thousand pounds worth of stolen funds."