Overview
- The Tokyo High Court, which ruled Tuesday, left in place the Tokyo District Court’s nine-year prison sentence and rejected the former employee’s appeal.
- Court records say she stole about ¥390 million in gold and cash from customers at the Nerima and Tamagawa branches between March 2023 and October 2024.
- Judges found she opened boxes with a spare key limited to certain employees and abused a trusted role as a deputy branch manager.
- The motive the courts accepted was to plug losses from foreign-exchange margin trading, and in earlier testimony she apologized and acknowledged a gambling disorder.
- The high court said the first court made no unreasonable errors and noted references to uncharged thefts were used to explain motive, not to increase the sentence, after prosecutors had sought 12 years at trial.