AN assistant bank manger who stole more than £80,000 in a 12-year fiddle was jailed for two years.

Neil Kearsey used his knowledge to switch the bank's money into his own accounts and fictitious ones which he created.

Sentencing him at Chichester Crown Court yesterday,

Judge Anthony Thorpe said he was glad he had no savings at the HSBC bank and advised a full report should go to the Bank of England.

Kearsey, 35, admitted 14 offences including deception and

false accounting and asked for a further 117 offences to be taken into consideration. The court heard how Kearsey operated the fiddle at the Littlehampton branch of the bank where he was assistant manager and at branches in

Portslade and Sussex University where he had also worked for the bank, which

was formerly the Midland.

Mrs Beverley Cherrill, prosecuting, said the offences came to light when Kearsey told his wife Nicky

he had embezzled money and he disappeared to Ireland from their home in Bridge Road, Worthing.

The court heard she contacted bank staff, who in turn contacted the police because there were concerns for his safety.

Mrs Cherrill said Kearsey had gone to Cork and left a

ticket for his wife at Gatwick.

She used it to meet him and persuade him to come home.

He was sacked by HSBC but has since returned £21,000 of the £82,925 he took.

During the hearing, Judge Thorpe criticised the "appalling" length of time involved in the offences and added: "I am delighted to say for the record that I don't bank with them."

The judge said he was not going to order the compensation applied for by the bank "in the light of it failing to conduct its banking affairs properly," adding the issue should be left to the civil courts.

Pearce Power, defending, said father-of-three Kearsey had lost everything except the support of his

second wife and although he had now moved to Ireland he had returned to face his punishment.

He said Kearsey had manipulated the

system when he ran into financial problems during his first

marriage after the birth of his first child 12 years ago, but all the money was the bank's and he had not infiltrated customer accounts.

Judge Thorpe told Kearsey that offences like his were a breach of trust and had

an effect on the public's confidence in banks.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.