A judge has sentenced financial services worker Corey Casagrande, 37, to 20 months in prison (suspended for 24 months) for stealing ￡75,000 ($96,196) from the Swiss bank accounts of dead customers.

According to Wales Online, Casagrande – who is from the Welsh city of Newport – used the cash to bankroll his gambling addiction and luxury lifestyle expenses, including exotic holidays and designer shoes.

Prosecutor Hashim Salmman told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court that ex-Target Financial Services employee Casagrande was a team leader dealing with major accounts, including BBC, Barclays, and Credit Suisse.

￡75,000 had been withdrawn from accounts belonging to three dead customers

Casagrande’s fraud revolved around the estates of dead people who had accounts with the latter bank headquartered in Switzerland. In August 2020, a suspicious Target conducted an internal investigation which found ￡75,000 had been withdrawn from accounts belonging to three dead customers.

The judge said Casagrande had used his insider knowledge of Target’s banking systems along with false documents claiming to be from legitimate solicitors to funnel money into third party bank accounts, the “bulk” of which went straight to him.

Salmman told the court Casagrande “displayed a level of sophistication and an understanding” of Target’s internal financial systems. Authorities, however, didn’t charge Casagrande with financial fraud until after he had served time in prison in 2021 for being caught with a kilogram of cocaine with intent to supply.

The defendant’s lawyer Amelia Pike said her client’s fraud was committed “at the peak of addiction” to gambling and that he “was deeply ashamed of his actions.”

The judge stated the 24 months suspension of Casagrande’s 20-month prison sentence came about because of “steps the defendant had taken to turn his life around following his cocaine trafficking conviction” and the fact UK prisons were overcrowded. He also ordered Casagrande to complete 80 hours of unpaid work as part of his sentence.