Fraudsters siphoned £280,000 from the bank account of TV comic Harry Hill as part of a scam targeting wealthy people that netted an estimated £500,000. A court heard that an unnamed pair of crooks allegedly used threats to obtain answers to confidential security questions needed to control the bank accounts of prospective marks including Hill, 41.

These details allowed fraudsters to set up bogus bank accounts in their victims' names and transfer money to the fraudulent accounts, where large sums of money were subsequently extracted. Hill (real name Dr Matthew Hall) discovered he was one of five people targeted in the scam after querying a suspicious transaction at his bank, the Halifax. The bank has recovered £150,000 of the money stolen and refunded the remaining stolen cash to its clients.

Sharmane Dillon, 23, a Halifax customer adviser from Perivale, Middlesex, admits passing on customer details but denies fraud. In court, she claimed conmen behind the racket threatened her with violence, The Daily Mirror reports.

The case continues.®

Bootnote

Hill peddles his brand of surreal humour through shows such as Harry Hill's TV Burp. One of the running gags in early versions of his shows were attempts by Harry's wife, May Sung, to pinch his savings book.