A conman posing as an RBS employee duped a member of staff at the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) into handing over banking details before withdrawing £465,000 from the organisation's account, according to local press reports.
The man walked into the RCS Edinburgh headquarters and convinced a member of staff to set up a new banking facility, the city's Sheriff Court has been told at the trial of two teenagers accused of participating as mules in the scam.
The suspect allegedly told the duped RCS worker that a reader was being used to access the organisation's accounts in order to convince them to hand over "unique numbers". He told the member of staff that a smart card would to be sent to the college.
However, the card was instead used to transfer £465,000 to several accounts in the UK and India. Most of the transfers were stopped but the college lost £80,000 and RBS £40,000.
In court yesterday, two unemployed teenagers, Ross Nicol and Craig Robinson, admitted their minor roles in the fraud, which occurred last summer.
Nicol admitted to entering into a deal with the main suspect whereby £14,999 was transferred from the college's Royal Bank account into his own. He then withdrew the money and handed it over to the main suspect, receiving a £500 cut. Robinson filtered £10,000 through his account.
Police are still investigating the larger scheme.
Conmen swipe half a million from Royal College of Surgeons - Deadline