A CONVICTED fraudster from Sale has been ordered to pay back nearly £80,000.

Keith Dimbleby, 54, of Warbreck Grove, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position at an earlier hearing and was sentenced to two years at Manchester Minshull Street, Crown Court on December 4, 2013.

Between October 2010 and April 2013, Dimbleby, who had worked at Lloyds bank for 37 years at a number of branches in Manchester and Tameside, stole £60,841.11 from two customer accounts.

One of the customers, an 86-year-old woman, was concerned about three transactions that had been made from her account in April 2013.

Following enquiries by the bank, it emerged that money had been transferred to Dimbleby’s private account a further four times.

As investigations continued, it was revealed that another customer, an 86-year-old man, had also had money transferred without authorisation from his account straight into Dimbleby’s.

Dimbleby was reported to police and following an investigation, it was determined that he had stolen £50,341.11 from the woman's account in seven transactions over two and a half years.

Additionally, in July 2012, Dimbleby had stolen £10,500 in two transactions from the man's account.

The bank reimbursed both customers.

On September 23, 2014, under the Proceeds Of Crime Act, Dimbleby was ordered to pay back £79,633 within the next 56 days or face an extra 21 months in prison.

The payment includes £65,515 to recompense Lloyds bank for compensating his victims, the figure rising from the amount he stole due to an up lift for inflation and a further £14,118 in cash payments to his bank accounts, the origins of which could not be identified.

Det Con John Townsend said: "This sends out a message that if you commit crime such as this, you can not only expect to go to prison and pay your victims back in full but find yourself paying back even more than you may have thought.

“I hope it also sends a message we will track down the assets of criminals in whatever form they exist and use the powers under POCA to take assets from criminals before giving them back to their victims."