The former head of online security at Lloyds Banking has been found guilty of defrauding the bank of £2.5m.

Jessica Harper admitted a single charge of fraud which saw her submit false invoices to claim payments totalling £2,463,750. She also admitted a single charge of transferring criminal property, the money, which she had defrauded from her employers.

Harper took the money over a four-year period between December 2007 and December 2011. Lawyers in court yesterday described her actions as 'a very simple fraud' and said she spent the cash on property for herself and family members.

Sue Patten, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's central fraud division, said: 'Jessica Harper has been convicted of the type of crime the bank employed her to combat. The evidence in the case was clear and left Harper with little choice but to plead guilty. In doing so, she has admitted to a huge breach of trust against her former employer.'

The lawyer defending Harper said she was in the process of selling her £700,000 home to repay some of the stolen cash and had already cashed in her pension and various other shares'.

The fraud came to light as part of an internal investigation at part-nationalised Lloyds. Harper is due to be sentenced at a later date.

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