Bank coughs up $1 million for Tas victim

The ANZ bank will reimburse an elderly victim of crime almost $1 million which was siphoned from her account by a Hobart financial planner to feed his gambling debt.

Kenneth David Drake, 60, was on Tuesday sentenced in the Tasmanian Supreme Court - on one count of stealing $925,085.09 - to six-and-a-half years in prison and will be eligible for parole after half that time.

"I've been told the bank will reimburse the full amount ... therefore the loss is now that of the bank," Justice David Porter noted before sending Drake to jail.

The court was told Drake, while employed by a financial services group owned by the ANZ bank, had controlled the finances of the victim, now aged 94, for decades.

Between April 2009 and December 2015 he forged her signature on 61 occasions to transfer money from her investment accounts into his own.

"He said he had misappropriated the money because of a personal debt crisis," the judge said of Drake.

Following a marriage breakdown in 1995 Drake turned to gambling and alcohol and subsequently reached the limit on his credit cards, the court was told.

"Despite the amount involved the defendant has nothing to show for the money he stole," Justice Porter said.

A victim impact statement written by the woman's niece detailed an emotional breach of trust against a vulnerable individual.

Drake admitted the crime when first questioned by police and has been in custody since February 6.