Lloyds British head quits over Indian friends’ multi-million pound scam in Bangalore

LONDON - A British executive who is jointly responsible for more than 2,000 Lloyds TSB employees in India, Andrew Taylor, has quit following a multi-million pound racket involving his two Indian friends who were allegedly employed by him into well-paid posts in which they were effectively ‘writing cheques to themselves’.

According to the Daily Mail, Taylor, Lloyds head of off-shore operations in Bangalore, is alleged to have appointed Vijay Bhaskar and Raj Kumar to run the facilities department, responsible for awarding contracts to Indian companies, above more experienced British colleagues.

A source at the bank’s offices in the Bagmane Tech Park said that Bhaskar was a driver for Lloyds, who caught Andrew’s attention and was appointed as the facilities manager along with Kumar.

“They were given more power than better qualified staff, but that wasn’t enough. Someone blew the whistle over Bhaskar and Professional Touch, where he was basically writing out cheques to himself,” the source added.

The duo were alleged to have started paying thousands of pounds to a Bangalore firm called Professional Touch, which supplied rented apartments, driving and cleaning services for Lloyds executives.

The alleged multi-million scam was going on while Lloyds was sacking thousands of British workers to cut costs.

Meanwhile, Taylor said that he had resigned because of his ill health but declined to comment further on the issue.

A spokesman for the bank confirmed that investigation is being carried out about the allegations of professional misconduct in its wing in Bangalore. (ANI)