Two Barclays Bank employees have been jailed for defrauding elderly customers out of £1.4 million.

Personal banker Andrew Waters, 26, who was based at Barclays in Croydon and Karl Edwards, 44, who was manager of Barclays in Birmingham, were each sentenced to five years imprisonment.

Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, after an investigation by West Midlands Police discovered the pair were paid by an organised crime team to use inside knowledge to siphon money from wealthy customers.

Birmingham Crown Court heard Waters of London Road, Norbury, identified two large accounts held by customers in their 80s. Edwards of Crookbarrow Road, Worcester, then used his more senior position to arrange access.

Police said the men then posed as relations of the account holders, using fake passports and forged papers to set up accounts. They would then move money from the victims' accounts into false accounts before transferring the funds into an offshore bank account.

Two other men who were part of the organised crime team, who were not Barclays employees, helped move the money offshore. Joseph Murphy, 36, of Carshalton was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison and Nathan Denton, 37, from Water Orton, Staffordshire, was jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Around £900,000 was removed from a couple's joint account, while £400,000 was taken from an account held by a woman, in what the prosecution described as a "slickly run and rapidly achieved" operation. Only £51,000 has been recovered.

Detective Constable Simon Hughes from the economic crime team, said: "The bankers deliberately targeted elderly wealthy victims who rarely checked their bank accounts.

"One victim had not been to the bank for over 20 years. The bankers used their position of trust and access to confidential customer information as a vital link in the fraud."