FRAUDSTERS had a field day over the last holiday period, hitting at least two major banks for a proverbial “six”.

They raked in quite a tidy sum from both Royal Bank of TnT (RBTT) and Republic Bank and while one bank told TnT Mirror it was not their policy to “make these things public”, the other dodged telephone calls.

However, according to reliable information, Republic was taken for $3.5 million in total from branches in Chaguanas and Valsayn.

The culprit, according to official source, was a “light-skinned, medium-built man of mixed race”.

He first obtained a Fincor draft with which he opened accounts at Republic’s Valsayn and Chaguanas branches.

He then made withdrawals through his credit card and disappeared.

The sum of $1.7 million was drawn from Chaguanas, while $1.8 was drawn from Valsayn.

The bank’s surveillance equipment spotted the same individual operating at its two branches.

However, there was no match between the names, addresses or identification information, as he had submitted different details to each branch.

It took some time before the two Operational Risk departments realised he was one and the same individual.

But that meant little at that point, as he has since been nowhere to be found.

Officials in the Corporate Communications and Operational Risk Departments at Republic’s Head Office in Port of Spain and branches at Chaguanas and Valsayn, coincidentally, were either “on another line”, “not in at the moment” or “left already” up to Press time, when contacted by the Mirror.

In most cases Corporate Communications departments referred Mirror to Risk Departments after being briefed on our queries.

Subsequently, however, none of the Risk people managed to answer.

Mirror was either invited to leave a message for or was assured of getting a response from a variety of bank officials, including Anna Maria Garcia-Brooks, Sonya Hassie, Darin Carmichael or Christopher Aird.

The entire risk department at Valsayn was said to be “out in the field”.

RBTT was even cagier.

One official said the bank did not like to make such incidents public.

Asked whether the bank should not be more concerned about such incidents taking place rather than “it being made public”, the official (name withheld) sought to retract the statement, saying he/she did not wish to be quoted until investigators find something concrete.

“Certainly, a bank being a confidential institution, if something turns up out of ordinary, we check it first then put a stamp on it.

“We find out what’s wrong and then deal with it,” the official said, confirming that investigations are being done re “an item that a merchant brought in”.

According to reports, the Fraud Squad is checking into the issue of an RBTT draft in the name of Marvin Andrews (a false name). The draft was fully authorised at RBTT’s Maraval branch and was subsequently used to defraud a businessman of $14,000 in goods (a stove and refrigerator) just over a week before Christmas.