A bank clerk plundered �20,000 from a customer’s account in bogus transactions.

Tharini Navaratnarajah, 30, abused her position as a “trusted” employee to create phantom standing orders.

She arranged for cash to be transferred into accounts belonging to bed and breakfast owner Hossein Kazemi Mehrabadi, 44, and his wife.

The deception was part of a wider plan to raise funds for a “criminal gang”, the Old Bailey heard.

Navaratnarajah denied fraud, while Mehrabadi denied acquiring criminal property and dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit, but both were convicted.

Navaratnarajah, of Third Avenue, Manor Park, on Monday last week was given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, 180 hours’ unpaid work and must pay �3,000 compensation to Barclays.

Mehrabadi did not attend court and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Their arrests follow two rogue transactions at Barclays branch in Forest Gate, on June 2, 2010, when she used a computer of a colleague, who was on a cigarette break, to try and cover her tracks, jurors were told.

A total of �10,000 went into Mehrabadi’s current account, and �10,000 was sent to his wife’s account.

Mehrabadi set up a savings account into which he transferred �6,500. He withdrew �1,000 from his local branch in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, while an unnamed man tried to withdraw �9,000 from a City branch.

Mr Paton said the accused were “cannon fodder” in a criminal gang but they refused to name them.