A New Malden businessman is facing jail after being admitting his part in a £1m bank scam swindling some of Britain’s richest people.

Naresh Patwari, 50, of Selbourne Road, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court on Friday, February 12, of laundering cash siphoned from wealthy clients at the Sloane Square branch of Barclays Bank.

Patwari pleaded guilty to acquiring criminal property but his co-defendant, Karl Hession, of Stoke-on-Trent, is still on trial after denying a similar charge.

Barclays cashiers Tommy Jackman, 24, Mohammed Iqbal, 30, and Chikezie Emeruem, 33, hired experts to fake identity documents for false bank transfers totalling nearly £350,000, with another £630,000 in attempted transfers, the court heard.

One victim was Bath-based florist Dinah Nicholson, who saw £158,000 snatched from her current account just days after requesting a £58,000 transfer be made to her solicitors for a house deposit.

During the five-week trial, Barclays’ fraud analyst John Lewis said the bank’s records clearly showed Ms Nicholson’s account had been accessed by Mr Jackman and Mr Iqbal several times in the same month.

The money was transferred to a Bradford-based company in Manningham, near Bradford, which was also accessed by Mr Iqbal three times in the week following the false transfer, the court heard.

The bankers used their company ID cards, an internal database and switched customers’ phone numbers with their own, allowing them to pose as the customer and approve the transfers, the court heard.

Patwari is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on February 25.