A SON who took advantage of a banking blunder to obtain more than £12,000 which rightly belonged to his father has been jailed for six months.

At a previous hearing Kevin Scranage, 31, of Oakenbottom Farm, Ewood Bridge, near Haslingden, was found guilty by a jury of obtaining £12,400 by deception from the Abbey National Bank.

Scranage who was said to have committed the offence while living in Market Street, Edenfield had denied the charge, but was convicted by a majority verdict. Sentence was adjourned for pre-sentence and psychiatric reports.

At the trial at Bolton Crown Court Ian Metcalfe, prosecuting, said father and son Keith and Kevin Scranage were living together at Ashenbottom Farm in 1996 at the time of the takeover of the National Provincial Building Society by the Abbey National Bank.

Both had the same surname, the same initial and the same address.

Both had accounts with the National Provincial Society with father Keith having more than £10,000 invested and son Kevin, £115.

Mr Metcalfe said that after the takeover, the son received letters from the Abbey National notifying him that his account had been credited with more than £10,000 plus a "windfall" payment of £1,500, arising from his membership of the National Provincial. Father Keith heard nothing from Abbey National and eventually complained to the banking ombudsman about his missing £12,000, unaware the cash was in his son's account.

By the time the money was traced, the son had transferred the £12,000 out of the Abbey National into the Halifax, but he later repaid the money, the court was told.

Scranage told the jury he had never intended to keep his father's £12,000 indefinitely but had put the money into the Halifax to expose the "extreme negligence" of the Abbey National.Judge Bruce Macmillan said an aggravating feature of the case was that the person who had been deprived was Scranage's own father.

He said he had kept the sentence short because of Scranage's reputation as a man of previous positive good character and the fact that he had repaid the money.

He said he had also taken into account the strain Scranage had undergone in the two years which had elapsed before the case came to court.

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