Banking exec jailed over fake £3m HMRC payments

A finance chief at a city bank has been jailed for four and a half years after he created two fake payments worth £2.9m, from his employer to HMRC, and then diverted the funds to himself.

Simon Olver, who was head of finance, accounting, reporting and tax at Credit Industriel et  Commercial Bank, spent over £230,000 of the money on designer watches, down payments on sports cars and a house, and luxury holidays.

Olver was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court having pleaded guilty to two offences of fraud by abuse of position and one offence of creating articles for use in fraud, following an investigation by the City of London Police’s Fraud Squad.