employee's sentence for stealing increased.

Former Bermuda Commercial Bank worker Lucinda Bean was sentenced in the Supreme Court in January to nine months in prison for stealing close to $30,000.

But although Bean, who was an assistant to the assistant manager of the bank's operations department, admitted taking the money and repaid $3,520, the Crown yesterday argued that her sentence was "manifestly inadequate''.

Crown counsel Miss Sharon Kenny said: "The sentence imposed failed to reflect the seriousness of the offences''.

And she said the Crown appealed the sentence for various reasons, including: A substantial amount of money was taken between October, 1990 and February, 1992 by a person in a high position of trust; Bean's use of dormant foreign accounts could hurt Bermuda's relationship with foreign investors; Bean used complex and well thought out plans to take the money; and The motive behind the theft appeared to be "pure greed''.

Miss Kenny noted that the money was used to pay for 29-year-old Bean's timesharing unit in Florida, rent and other bills.

"Given that she was bringing in about $3,000 a month ($2,500 from the bank and $1,000 from a second job), one has to question why she needed the money,'' Miss Kenny said.

Bean told the probation officer she used some of the money to take her relatives on trips and pay their mortgage.

But, Miss Kenny said, she never made any mortgage payment for the family nor was she financially responsible for the family.

Miss Kenny also said Bean made no restitution to the bank between the time or her arrest in February, 1992 and sentencing on January 5, even though she had another job.

Noting former Bank of N.T. Butterfield teller Theresa DaSantos was sentenced to nine months for stealing less money from the bank and repaying it all of it, Miss Kenny said if the Court of Appeal ruled that was a low sentence, nine months for Bean was "manifestly inadequate''.

She said while the starting point of Bean's sentence should be a year, a proper sentence for such a case would be between 18 months and two years.

But Bean's lawyer Mr. Delroy Duncan vehemently disputed this.

Mr. Duncan said the sentence was not inadequate because sentences by the Court of Appeal for similar offences had ranged from a suspended sentence -- if there were exceptional circumstances, to two years in the cases of not guilty pleas.

"To Miss Bean and this community nine months (in prison) is a signal that the court will not tolerate this sort of behaviour,'' he told the Appeal tribunal.

He said Puisne Judge the Hon. Mrs. Justice Wade, who sentenced Bean, placed weight on two factors brought out by a social inquiry report -- that there were some dysfunctional problems between Bean and her parents and after leaving the bank she was hired as a cashier at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

This showed that her employers there trusted her, Mr. Duncan said.

Bean was also attempting to repay the money stolen, he said.

Bean planned to pay back the bank $1,000 a month after her release from prison.