A teenage cashier boasted she was involved in a bank fraud when she was "talking big" on an internet message board, a jury heard.

Gemma Eggleton told a man calling himself "Yea, I'm Good" she made £30,000 from three scams but had wasted it all.

Eggleton, now 20, was only 18 when she is accused of dishonestly closing down three Abbey accounts containing a total of almost £400,000.

A trial at Leeds Crown Court has heard that cash from two of the accounts was paid to Bradford businessman Syed Shazad Ali, 40, of Thirkleby Royd, Clayton.

Eggleton, assistant manager at the Abbey's Sydenham branch in 2004, denies three charges of conspiring to defraud Abbey customers.

She told the jury yesterday she lied to boost her image on the MSN instant messaging board in the early hours of May 18, 2005. By that time she had been suspended and then sacked by the Abbey as part of the fraud inquiry.

Eggleton told the jury she felt deceived and angry at the time after discovering that her friend was seeing her boyfriend behind her back.

Eggleton said she was "shocked and upset" when she was suspended by the Abbey on December 23, 2004. She asked the investigation team if they had CCTV evidence to support claims that she had dishonestly closed down bond accounts.

She said that on two occasions she had actually alerted the authorities to dishonest customers at the Sydenham branch.

She felt that she had been set up by fraudsters although she conceded that her handwriting was on at least one of the withdrawal slips.

Andrew Stubbs, cross-examining Eggleton, branded her "an immature material girl". He said that when she was chatting on the internet she spoke of her love of clubbing and clothes shopping and had displayed a photo of her face on top of a $1,000 bill.

The jury has heard that Juga Singh, 38, of Sangster Way, Bradford, has also pleaded guilty to his part in the fraud.

Also on trial are Birmingham businessmen Manjit Power, 43, and Ajvinder Singh, 45. The brothers-in-law deny conspiracy and money laundering.

The trial continues.