Annabelle Allen hid behind a mask of a 'bubbly, hardworking' IT worker to cover for her criminal schemes.
A seemingly normal girl from Halifax living a secret ‘double-life’ has been jailed for running a scam which defrauded her friends and family out of nearly half a million pounds.
Mother of two, 29-year-old Annabelle Allan, used her job with Lloyds Bank as ‘cover’ to trick friends and family – including her own brother – into investing in a fake share scheme.
The ‘hardworking, bubbly, enthusiastic and friendly’ mastermind presented herself as a regular mum- but secretly used ‘sophisticated’ methods in order to con those closest to her.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Allan started working as a technician at Lloyds Banking Group in September 2015. Prior to that she had worked as an ICT Technician and a Service Desk Advisor.
On her profile, she describes herself as an ‘enthusiastic and friendly person’ who has a ‘thirst for knowledge’ and says she enjoys participating in hobbies including dancing, going to the gym, skiing and meeting up with friends.
But behind the mask of a ‘bubbly’ young woman lay a much darker persona who found herself spiralling into debt in order to feed her ‘addiction to money’.
In order to feed her addiction, Allen developed a complex scam to dupe her family and friends into handing over their hard-earned cash, landing her own brother in court with £16,600 worth of debt after she secretly took out loans in his name without his knowledge.
But eventually Allan’s web of lies eventually came crashing down and she has now been jailed for four years after admitting fraud at Bradford Crown Court.
The court heard how between 2017 and 2019, Allan used her IT position at a Lloyds Bank data centre to devise a ‘detailed and convincing’ fake share scheme.
By forging signatures and creating fake letters purporting to be from police and solicitors, she was able to obtain around £500,000 in ill-gotten gains.
Around £300,000 of the stolen money has since been paid back – although £167,796 is still unaccounted for.
In Court, Allan’s barrister Recorder Bryan Cox KC explained how she fell into a ‘vicious cycle of debt’ after taking out a Payday loan when she was 18.
Cox said she had shown persistence and a ‘considerable degree of sophistication’ in her offending.
He added: ‘When you received complaints you fobbed people off with elaborate excuses.
‘These were people that you knew, that you were in regular contact with, and your ability to perpetrate this offending shows a high degree of callousness and disregard for the lives of other people, some of whom you purported to be in friendship with.
‘You were tricking people and misleading them to part with substantial sums of money.’
