Police have launched an investigation into claims that the son of the chairman of the Bank of N.T. Butterfield defrauded a bank customer of a substantial sum of cash, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Police began their enquiries after an elderly female customer alleged that James King Jr., the son of bank chairman Dr. James King, had taken substantial amounts of money from her account.

Mr. King Jr. resigned his position as assistant vice-president business development in early April, and it is understood the alleged theft came to light after he left.

The Royal Gazette understands that the amount of money alleged to have been taken from the account is in excess of $100,000, but the bank has reimbursed the money to ensure the customer is not out of pocket.

It us understood Mr. King's resignation was voluntary and not connected to the alleged theft, which bank officials discovered after he left.

According to a well placed source, the bank alerted Police to the incident.

A Police spokesman said yesterday: "Bermuda Police Service can confirm that we have a complaint from an account holder at the Bank of Butterfield in respect to a substantial amount of money allegedly fraudulently taken from an account and an investigation into this incident is underway."

A Bank of Butterfield spokeswoman said: "We do not comment on issues relating to employee or customer matters and we fully cooperate with Police investigations."