A bank employee from a branch in Sa Pobla has been sentenced to one year and three months in prison for appropriating €300,000 from eight clients. The woman, who has acknowledged the facts, will not serve time in prison as she has returned the money.
The Palma Court issued a ruling this Tuesday against a 54-year-old bank employee who, for years, emptied the accounts of her own clients at the Sa Pobla branch. The accused has pleaded guilty to a crime of aggravated misappropriation in conjunction with another of document forgery, and has accepted a sentence of one year and three months in prison.
The court took into account that the woman has returned the full amount of the stolen money —€300,000— to the bank, which had already compensated the affected clients. Additionally, it applied the mitigating factor of undue delays, as the case took over a decade to reach trial. As a result, the convicted woman will not serve time in prison as long as she does not reoffend in the next two years.
Eight victims and a systematic modus operandi
According to the prosecution's assessment, the events date back to 2014, when the bank detected irregularities during an internal audit. The employee, who worked at the Sa Pobla office, took advantage of her position to make cash withdrawals and transfers to her own accounts from the branch's terminals. To do this, she forged the clients' signatures and, in some cases, deregistered them from telephone and online banking services so they could not detect the movements.
The investigation revealed that the accused started with small amounts —between €800 and €1,000— but over time increased the amount of the transactions, reaching one of €8,590. In total, eight clients were affected, although the main victim was a woman who lost nearly €150,000 over 72 transactions in four years. In other cases, the amounts exceeded €50,000.
The bank discovered the fraud during an internal audit
The scheme came to light when the bank itself, during a routine review, detected suspicious movements in several accounts. It was then that it filed a complaint with the Inca Instruction Court, which opened an investigation that has lasted more than ten years. The accused, who used her own computer and access key to carry out the transactions, also took advantage of her colleagues' absences to use their terminals and thus hinder detection.
For the residents of Sa Pobla, this case serves as a wake-up call regarding the trust placed in financial institutions. The affected branch, located in the heart of the town, has been the scene of a fraud that lasted for years without clients noticing. The sentence, although it avoids prison, makes it clear that the bank's internal control system worked, albeit late.
A precedent that calls for caution
The case highlights the importance of periodically reviewing bank transactions. Although the bank has covered the losses, the affected clients have lived through a decade of judicial uncertainty. The accused now faces a fine of €540 and the obligation not to commit any crimes in the next two years to avoid imprisonment. The oral hearing, which took place at the Palma Court, lasted only a few minutes, as the defense and prosecution reached a plea agreement.
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