A GANG of corrupt business-men who exploited a flaw in the banking system to steal more than £15m from a NatWest branch in Merseyside were facing jail yesterday.

Martin Williams, 29, of Bootle, Ian Clark, 37, of Scot-land, and Darren Lee, 35, of Aintree, took the cash after the bank’s takeover by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2002.

The money was taken from a branch in St Helens, Mersey-side, and transferred to accounts in Riga, Latvia, Southwark Crown Court heard.

They disguised the scam by creating a bogus business deal involving 38,000 mobile tele-phones and by using a company account which had previously traded in huge sums of cash.

Companies involved are said to have included Bootle-based Britanniacity Ltd, which banked at the branch and was managed by Williams, of Bailey Drive, Bootle, and Lee, of Caldy Road, Aintree.

The court heard the company, which traded mainly in high value mobile phones, was an “obvious” account to use as it had been receiving transfers for years of vast sums of money stretching into millions.

The loophole in the banks’ security system meant for a limited period, cheques appear-ed to customers as if they had been paid in, when in reality they could still bounce.

The gang paid in bogus cheques for millions of pounds, withdrawing the money before the bank could return the cheques. They maximised the potential of their scam by planning it for the May bank holiday weekend in 2004, when they would have an extra day to launder the money.

Prosecutor David Aaronberg said the fraudsters had been tipped off about the opportunity for dishonesty by a letter RBS sent to all customers following its takeover of NatWest in 2002.

The letter “alerted” the fraud-sters to the loophole which meant funds showed up on computer even though the money was not in the account.

The gang were found guilty of stealing £15.25m from the bank in just five days, between April 30 and May 4, 2004.

The jury found the men guilty of a conspiracy to de-fraud after a three-month trial.

A fourth defendant, Lee Quincey, 41, pleaded guilty to the charges last October after his fingerprints were found on cheques and credit slips.

Another man, Jonathan Quinn, 45, of Darnhall Cres-cent, Nottingham, was respon-sible for the Latvian account.

Quinn, who pleaded guilty to the conspiracy last September, was sentenced to three years but was already serving an 18- year term for importing cannabis into the UK.

Another man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was cleared by the jury.

The defendants all denied their involvement claiming they had been acting in good faith.

Judge Anthony Pitts told the defendants they would be sentenced next Monday .