There is rich, there is super-rich and then there is a level of wealth so great that a Barclays bank employee thinks he can siphon off $6.25m a month from your bank account and expect you not to notice.

Unfortunately for the fraudster, the victim, a senior member of the Qatari royal family did check his monthly statement - but not before $78m had disappeared. Embarrassingly for Barclays details of the crime have been lodged with a Spanish court - just as the bank turns to the Qatar Investment Authority (run by another member of Qatari royal family) to support a $7.9 billion cash call.The Times says the fraud took place between December 2001 and February 2003. The sheikh alleges a Barclays’ staffer set up a ghost account in his name and siphoned off monies from the legitimate account. The paper says the QIA is not yet aware of the alleged fraud, which has, until now, been a private matter between the bank and the particular family member.

The bank also failed to demand any proof of identity or to conduct a face-to-face document-signing process, the sheikh alleges.

A total of $45m in cash was withdrawn, while a further $31m was transferred to other bank accounts before the alleged fraud became apparent to the sheikh. Over one four-day spell, $3.9m in cash was withdrawn from the account.

Money transfers of $3.1m or more were frequently made to bank accounts in Monaco, the British Virgin Islands and Switzerland.

The sheikh says he was never contacted by Barclays about the huge sums being moved in the account, in spite of the fact that he was a co-signatory. Some of the monies have since been recovered, but the sheikh claims he is still owed about $65m.

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