Bank manager who spent customers monies on betting released from prison

A bank branch manager in Kyrenia north Cyprus who was arrested along with his girlfriend for using money stolen from bank customers on bets is released on bail.

The suspect İ.C, was arrested for stealing more than £1 million from customer accounts at the bank where he was the branch manager in Kyrenia. His girlfriend İ.D., who was also arrested in connection with the crime were paraded in court on Friday on charges of "theft" and "document forgery".

Police the suspect was initially arrested on February 3 on the grounds that he stole 217,000 pounds from a deposit account belonging to two people.

Police said the suspect gave a voluntary statement and said he stole a total of around £1.3 million from the accounts of eight different bank customers and spent all of it.

The police stated that in the first examination of the suspect's mobile phone on February 12, 2024, conversations were detected regarding the suspect I.D. preparing fake deposit cards in the names of bank customers.

It was reported that the suspect gave another voluntary statement on February 12, and that he prepared fake deposit slips for customers from whose accounts he made withdrawals or transfers, and that he spent most of the money he stole by betting online. The police reported that they determined that the suspect lost 1,228,000 TL in betting games he played online between December 31 and February 02. The police announced that they could not access the records before December 31, 2024 due to a system change on the gaming site.

The police officer said that the suspects' assets and accounts have been put on hold, and that bank video footage and cell phone records are being reviewed. The police officer said that the investigation is ongoing, but that he cannot influence the rest of the suspects' investigation, and requested a guarantee.

The court ordered the suspect and his girlfriend to be released on bail with conditions.