A Barclays Bank worker has admitted stealing thousands of pounds from the account of Scottish pop star Emeli Sande.

Rasad Salam, 26, hacked into six customer's accounts stealing £18,250, including £4,500 from the Aberdeen hitmaker.

Salam pleaded pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud from December 2014 to February 2015 on the first day of a retrial at Inner London Crown Court yesterday.

He was jailed for 12 months suspended for 18 months and ordered to carry out unpaid work for the next 12 months.

He was originally accused of trying to steal up to £300,000 from Sande but many of his attempts failed.

The bank became suspicious of his accessing the accounts from the branch in Whitechapel and police raided his East London home where they found a stash of documents related to the frauds.

Prosecutor Anthony Heaton- Armstrong said: "The defendant began working for Barclays Bank in 2013 as a cashier. He worked at the time at 240 Whitechapel Road in London, E1.

"What he did by way of his offending was to using his unique registration number and the password, log on to the system employed by Barclays and obtain details of a number of customers. Probably about half a dozen or so.

"Having obtained the details and in some instances there was an attempt to transfer the customers monies in there accounts, but they were

unsuccessful in other instances.

"The successful accounts of fraud totalled £18,350. It's difficult to know to what extent the defendant was potentially involved and what went

on.

"Certainly he was the bank's inside man and was in essence a cog in the machine but whether he want to get the cash out or whether it went

through his hands it's being impossible to discover.

"He had a crucial role in the scheme."

Sentencing Salam, of Forest Gate, east London, Recorder Julian Malins said: "You are in a position inside the bank with access which enables you to access people's accounts.

"As a result of that I have no doubt that you are a very welcome entity, a very necessary addition to criminal gangs who get together to steal from banks.

"And without your help and people in the position that you are in, the help of such people, that wouldn't be possible.

"It's you that makes it possible even if it be the case that the others in this criminal conspiracy are getting a greater reward out of it than you do.

"This is a very serious breach of trust."

He added: "You are of high culpability because you're the person with the power and trust reposed in you by the bank and by all the

banks customers."

The charge of attempting to steal the £300,000 from to the joint bank account belonging to Sande and her ex-partner Adam Gouraguine in December 2014 was ordered to lie on file along with three other charges.