Jessica Harper, the former head of fraud and security for digital banking at Lloyds, has pleaded guilty to committing fraud by submitting false invoice payments for four years and then laundering the proceeds.
 
The 50-year-old from Croydon, South London, also admitted to an additional charge of disguising, converting, transferring or removing criminal property between 18 February 2008 and 21 December last year.

Sue Patten, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's central fraud division, said: "Jessica Harper has today 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."

Harper's lawyer, Carol Hawley, said she was in the process of exchanging contracts in order to sell her £700,000 home and repay some of the stolen cash.

"She appreciates the seriousness and has made full admissions in interview. She understands perfectly well on the next occasion she will be facing imprisonment of some length,” Ms Hawley said. “There are some matters to attend to, not least she is in the process of taking steps to repay significant sums of the money that has been taken and has already cashed in her pension and various other shares."

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith granted Harper bail, with certain conditions. “The Crown tell me she has co-operated and is unlikely to flee. In those circumstances I can grant her bail on condition of residence at her present home address. And there will be a curfew of 9pm to seven in the morning,' he said.

Harper has been required to hand in her passport and was ordered not to apply for any international documents. She will be sentenced next month.