WATCH: Reading bankers jailed after cons steals millions for customers and shareholders

The corrupt gang spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on extravagant goods including first-class flights, sex workers and a 100ft ship named 'The Powder Monkey'.

On Tuesday a six-year long police investigation into a fraud at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) in Queen Street, Reading successfully ended with five guilty verdicts. 

The case included Lynden Scourfield and David Mills, who spent nearly £3,000 on jewellery while enjoying a luxurious holiday in Las Vegas.

Lynden Scarfield

Mills' wife Alison was also involved, as was Mark Dobson and pensioner Michael Bancroft, who bought a dream holiday-home in Portugal. 

The "parasites" were convicted for money laundering and a string of fraud and corruption offences.

Judge Martin Beddoe said: “This case is not simply about a corrupt bank manager lending money to people he shouldn't have done. This case goes much deeper than that. 

“It involved an utterly corrupt bank manager lending corrupt, greedy people a vast amount of HBOS’s money and getting their tentacles into vulnerable people. 

“The cost in many respects was the destruction caused along the way to vulnerable people," he continued.

“What you [Scourfield] let happen through Mr Mills and Mr Bancroft permanently ensured that their businesses could not and would not get better. 

“People haven’t just simply lost money. In some instances they have lost families and friends.”

John Cartwright

Southwark Crown Court heard how the fraudsters, two of whom worked at the bank, collectively stole around £245m.

Senior HBOS employee Scourfield and Bishopgate director Dobson hired confidant David Mills as a ‘turnaround’ business consultant in their work helping struggling firms. 

The trio then forced the ailing businesses to spiral into debt, receiving a kick-back in big fees and stripping the companies of their assets as they failed to pay back the bank's original investment.

David Mills

As a gallery packed with victims of the criminals watched on, Judge Beddoe turned his attention towards 60 year-old Mills, who bribed 54 year-old Scourfield into doing his bidding with expensive watches, sex parties and “boys” jollies. 

“You are in my judgement a devious man who gets others to do your dirty work,” the judge continued. 

“You are the devil that Scourfield sold his soul to for sex and luxury trips, for bling and swag.”

Jurors previously heard how Dobson and Scourfield were part of a holiday to Thailand celebrating Mills' 50th birthday.

Scourfield also splashed £6,000 on a cruise and oversaw an 112-year-old business shut down after plunging into millions of pounds' debt, just six years after he became involved.

David Mills, of Todenham, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, was sentenced to 15 years for conspiracy to corrupt, four counts of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.

Scourfield, of Whitton Avenue West, Greenford, Middlesex, was sentenced to 11 years and three months after admitting one count of conspiracy to corrupt, four counts of fraudulent trading, and a single charge of conspiracy to conceal criminal property on August 12 2016.

Dobson, 56, of Brayfield Terrace, London, was sentenced to four and a half years for conspiracy to corrupt, and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.

They were sentenced alongside Mills' wife Alison, 51, who also played a major role in the corruption and was jailed for three and a half years.

Bancroft, 73, was jailed for 10 years for conspiracy to corrupt, three counts of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.

Alison Mills

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police, the force which led the investigation, said: "This has been the longest and most complex case in Thames Valley Police’s history.

“The sentencing reflects the severity of the crimes and the misery they inflicted on their victims. Their victims were people who were trying to contribute to the economy, creating jobs and offering goods and services. 

"They were normal people running small to medium sized businesses who needed support and instead had their livelihoods, and in many cases, their lives destroyed by the greed of these parasites."

Mark Dobson

John Cartwright, 72, who worked at the same firm Bancroft, was also jailed for three-and-a-half years for helping facilitate the fraud.

One other defendant, Jonathan Cohen, was acquitted at the trial. 

Michael Bancroft