A COUNCIL caretaker allowed his bank account to be used to launder cash from a £1m bank fraud, a court has heard.

Steven Fabian is one of five people on trial at Southwark Crown Court on charges of conspiracy to defraud or conspiracy to launder money.

They include Shana Campbell, aged 23, who worked in the Bexleyheath branch of the Halifax bank.

Campbell, of Finland Road, Brockley, is accused of hacking into accounts and obtaining confidential details of 13 wealthy bank customers.

She allegedly passed on the details to the others accused, enabling them to obtain £785,712.

Fabian, aged 44, from Kennington, who has denied helping to launder the cash, admitted he had allowed another gang member to use his account.

But he said he had not realised it was to launder money from a banking scam.

His barrister David Martin-Sperry QC claimed Fabian had been too trusting.

He added: "He was helping out a younger relative in what he thought was a perfectly innocent enterprise."

It is alleged his relative Oluwasegun Adekunle, aged 27, from Lambeth, lived a life of luxury on the proceeds of the stolen cash.

He has admitted his role in the fraud.

Emmanuel Imbrah, aged 21, from Reading, who worked for HSBC, also supplied similar bank details which provided the gang with £549,726.

Also accused are Dominic Almond, aged 39, from Slough, and Ayodeyi Osibogun, aged 30, from Brixton Hill.

Neil Kynoch, aged 38, from Windsor, has admitted laundering tens of thousands of pounds through his company Berkshire Motor World.

All the offences took place between October 1, 2004 and October 19, 2005. The trial continues.