GEORGE Parkinson had worked at the bank for nearly 20 years and had risen through the ranks by a combination of sheer hard work and a flair for information technology.

He had been instrumental in setting up all of the financial systems, and the computer networking, throughout the UK.

Now they had sidelined him into an area which they felt "best suited his abilities".

What that had meant in practice was that his new boss's son needed a job and George had become the target. The lad had come through university, had a degree and clearly knew his stuff, of that there was no doubt, but George had the bank's name etched into him – it was his reason for getting up in the morning.

Approaching 50, he found his options for alternative employment becoming limited and he suspected that after a suitable period he would be quietly pensioned off.

He was normally a placid man and his employer was probably relying upon this fact in his redeployment.

Well, he wasn't about to go without a fanfare. He knew the bank's control systems inside out and that they relied upon the integrity and loyalty of the staff to minimise any risk.

That had worked very well before his previous boss had been "retired" in favour of the current incumbent. This guy was one of life's delegators – loathe to dirty his hands with mundane tasks. Getting a scam past him shouldn't present too much of a problem.

George decided that he would use the old building society account which his parents had set up for him when he was a child. It was untraceable and, as long as the amounts transferred into it were not large enough to draw any attention, it would be very unlikely that it would be discovered.

He calculated that a small amount – less than £10,000 – could be siphoned off on a daily basis without anyone becoming suspicious, bearing in mind the millions traded every day.

They had given him the 180-day notice period required by his contract of employment and careful planning over the next six months could net him something in the region of £1 million.

This gave him the time to set up an intermediate account at an offshore bank to handle a regular movement of funds in preparation for his departure.

No-one had removed any of his security clearances and all of his passwords to the financial systems had been left in place. He had access to his boss's files, as the man was too stupid to realise that George had watched him at his keyboard enough times to work out the only password he used.

Setting up the funds transfer hadn't been a problem, and as all the banking reconciliations fell under his control he would have no difficulty in concealing the operation by use of the overnight credit transfer system. Nevertheless, he spent an anxious period while the first batch of transactions were processed, expecting at any moment that he would be ordered to the boardroom under escort.

It didn't happen and things just carried on as normal – at the end of the first week his building society account balance had risen by £49,568.19

Now that the process had been put in place and was working correctly, it was time to plan an escape route.

With a figure of around £1 million at his disposal, he could emigrate to some South American country with no extradition ties to the UK, and merely disappear.

He had kept his passport up to date and language would not be a problem as he had studied Spanish at A-level, having a flair for foreign studies at school.

He would merely prepare for departure at short notice with hand luggage only – anything else could be bought once he arrived at his destination.

His flight tickets would be purchased a week in advance and he would simply not turn up for work on the appropriate day.

It would be assumed that he was unwell and who could blame him in the circumstances?

The scheme had been running for around 10 weeks when the internal auditors arrived. He was nearly caught off guard and hadn't expected them so soon after their previous visit.

They said it was just down to a number of senior staff changes throughout the bank and that the check would be cursory at best due to a full system review having taken place some six months earlier.

They were scheduled to be on site for one week only but there was always the chance that their materiality routines and random data samples would pick up one or more of his transfers.

It seemed to be the longest week of his life. He had to remain calm, be at his desk at all the correct times, smile his usual smile when asked for any information by the audit team and generally go through the kind of hell he wouldn't even have wished on his new boss.

At the end of the visit, his meeting with the team manager lasted the customary half hour, resulted in a clean report and, after the usual shaking of hands and exchange of pleasantries, departure with the parting "See you next time".

George smiled, escorted him to the door and thought "No you won't mate". This galvanised him into action and a quick check on the building society account revealed a balance of £499,689.25.

He now felt that he would be safe after the auditors had filed the report, a draft of which he had already seen, but he would need to be cautious around the boss's son, who would be taking over his duties within the next couple of weeks.

That would still leave him a reasonable amount of time, during the handover period, to ensure that the transfers were still going through as normal but, after that, he would be left to concentrate upon the final timing of his exit route.

George now needed to make sure that the money in the building society would be accessible without any questions being asked, so the time came to organise an automated transfer to the offshore bank account which he had set up at the outset. These banks didn't ask too many questions if all the paperwork looked in order and a mandate, signed by him, would merely be honoured at the building society end without further recourse.

He would just clear the new account when he arrived in South America and simply vanish.

Time ticked on to the end of his six-month period and he estimated that the final figure would be in the region of £1.2 million – a final gesture of defiance of £300,000 on the final day appealed to his sense of humour and by the time that anyone noticed he would be half a world away and untouchable with £1.5 million and a new life.

His confidence took him by surprise – the old saying of the worm turning came to mind – and he was sorely tempted to deliver a personal message to his boss but he needed the cushion of a time delay to effect his escape and any show of bravado now would just draw attention to him.

The morning of departure arrived and it was with a sense of regret he stood in the hall of his house, with the taxi waiting outside, and looked around him for the last time. He had his travel documentation and confirmation from the offshore bank that all the funds had been received.

All the bills had been paid and there was no likelihood of anyone from work tracing him as he had removed all items of personal property from his office the previous week after everyone else had left for the day.

The drive to the airport was uneventful and in no time at all he had boarded his flight and was on his way. Once in the air, he breathed a huge sigh of relief and ordered a scotch from the air hostess.

She asked him if he needed anything further but he just shook his head and smiled as he wondered what his wife was going to think when she came home to find him gone.

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