RBS staffer dupes client of Rs 13L

Hyderabad, Jan. 22: In a fraud similar to the one that hit CitiBank in Gurgaon, an investor of Royal Bank of Scotland (formerly ABN-Amro) was duped of Rs 13.8 lakh by its relationship manager in Banjara Hills in the city. The staffer, Vivek Kumar Singh, subsequently left the bank.Panjagutta police has registered a case of cheating against Singh, a native of New Delhi, who is now absconding. The West Zone DCP, Mr Stephen Ravindra, said Ms Manisha Parikh Dhir of Mohali, Punjab, had invested in mutual funds with RBS, Banjara Hills in 2006.This is similar to the CitiBank fraud but the amount is less. She was out of station and the fund manager was managing her investments. Mr Ravindra said. Singh used to keep Ms Dhir informed over email, and told her that her account had reached `31.49 lakh, Mr Ravindra said.Later, Singh persuaded Ms Dhir to issue two cheques, which were crossed for ABN-Amro, and fraudulently withdrew `13.8 lakh. He made her believe that her money was safe and that she was holding 20 mutual funds.But Singh changed the password of her account because of which Ms Dhir could not access her account. When she called him to find out, he told her that it was a temporary glitch. He also persuaded her over phone not to visit the branch. By then he had quit the bank.On November 22 last year, Ms Dhir received a mail from another RBS staffer, Mr Ashok Babu, asking for a meeting with her regarding eight mutual funds. He told her that Singh was no longer with the bank.The scam was unearthed by the consistent efforts of the investor herself. The Panjagutta inspector, Mr Ashok Chakravarthy, said, The offence took place in June 2009 and it was detected by the complainant in December 2010. She lodged a complaint with the bank which filed a case with us.The police is expecting a report from the bank on Monday.We are probing the role of other bank officials to find out whether Singh has colluded with any of them. Banks cannot shrug responsibility as the accused was their employee, ! he said.

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