SKIPTON Building Society has appointed Stacey Blackwell as its new head of financial crime.

Mrs Blackwell takes up the role after 10 years with the society, the last five as the senior manager of the financial crime team.

She joined the building society in 2011 as a customer advisor in the Otley branch and moved to the Cross Hills branch in 2012 as manager.

She then worked in the branch operations team, joined the financial crime team in 2017 and was promoted to senior manager in 2018.

Mrs Blackwell, who lives in Otley, said: “Skipton (Building Society) has been hugely supportive of my goals and this role puts me in a position to continue to work for an organisation whose values match my own and to make a positive difference for customers every day.

“I am immensely proud to work for Skipton and delighted to take on the role as head of financial crime. Skipton has an excellent track record of fraud prevention and we work tirelessly to stay ahead of fraud trends and do everything we can to help keep customers money safe.

“One of the things I’m most passionate about is fraud prevention education. I’ll be working hard to make sure there’s lots of helpful information available to the public so that they can understand different types of scams and fraud and what they can do to avoid falling for them. Look out for a new scam awareness leaflet available in our branches soon.

“My one top tip for keeping your money safe is if something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. Take time to think about any contact out of the blue, especially if you’re being put under pressure to respond.”