A top London lawyer who conned millions from her bank bosses to help an ailing Indonesian airline has been jailed for five years.

Kate Johns, Deputy head of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi's legal department, received payments of £1.95 million for arranging letters of credit (L/Cs) that were used to prop up Air Efata (DC World News, 23 October 2009).

Colleagues pressured

Johns repeatedly persuaded colleagues to ignore procedures and approve L/Cs totalling more than £6 million.

"The essence of the fraud was that you used your position to persuade, cajole and, I'm afraid, bully those lower down the chain of command to authorise the loan," said the sentencing judge, John Price.

Airline collapse

The L/C proceeds were ostensibly to prop up Indonesian airline, Air Efata, but finished up in accounts controlled by the head of the ailing carrier, Frank Taira-Supit.

Johns received pay-offs totalling £1.95 million, much of which went towards clearing the mortgage on her home.

The cash injection failed to rescue Air Efata. Taira-Supit subsequently hanged himself.

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