Holidays may well cherish modern Robin Hood, German banker who helped poor from losing homes at cost of her own

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A German bank manager who secretly transferred millions of pounds from rich clients to debt-ridden customers has been spared jail.

The 62-year-old, dubbed the "Robin Hood banker", was found guilty of moving a total of 7.6 million euros (£6.85m) between 2003 and 2005. The bank's rich clients reportedly hadn't touched their accounts in years. She carried out 117 separate transfers to try and stop people's accounts closing due to lack of funds.

As a rule, the banker - whose name was not reported under German media conventions - moved the money back when the indebted clients were solvent again. But 1.1 million euros (£991,000) was lost when certain customers were unable to pay their debts. The banker has begun reimbursing the bank through her pension.

A German court in Bonn, where the woman's bank branch is located, took a lenient view of the fraud because the defendant owned up immediately and did not take any money for herself. "The accused hasn't put one cent in her own pocket," the banker's lawyer, Thomas Ohm, told the newspaper. "She did it purely out of sympathy with people who were suffering financially." A judge also said the banker had suffered enough after losing her job and paying compensation.

The bank manager was given a 22-month suspended jail term, a court spokesman said. According to press reports, she now lives off a tiny pension.

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Photos courtesy of Sky News, ABC News, euronews,

Original Source: Sky News and ABC News