A former employee of Higashi-Nippon Bank, a medium-size regional bank based in Tokyo, was arrested Monday for allegedly withdrawing money from customers' savings accounts without their consent, police said.

Masao Shiraishi, 50, a former section chief at the bank's Itabashi branch, is suspected of transferring around 50 million yen from several customers' accounts to his own account between December 1998 and last May.

The Metropolitan Police Department believes he stole money from depositors even before 1998, amassing about 100 million yen, according to police sources.

Shiraishi worked at several branches of the bank in Tokyo and oversaw some customer accounts, for which he was entrusted with passbooks and seals, the sources said. Having a passbook and seal enables a person to withdraw money from an account.

When the bank noticed an anomaly in a customer's account that Shiraishi had taken money from, he tried to conceal it by covering it up with money from another customer's account, the sources said.

The bank, based in Tokyo's Chuo Ward, filed a criminal complaint with police against Shiraishi in late September and dismissed him on Oct. 2.

The bank, established in 1924 and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section, has around 76 outlets, mainly in Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures.

Undone by embezzling

FUKUI (Kyodo) A former chairman of the local assembly of Imajo, Fukui Prefecture, was arrested Monday on suspicion of embezzling the town's money, police said.

Yukuo Takashima, 58, former head of the town's tourism association, is suspected of swindling about 450,000 yen from the association in August 1999, police said.

Takashima has owned up to the embezzlement, telling police he needed money to pay back a housing loan.

He headed the association from 1992 until March, when he dropped the post after embezzlement rumors surrounding him emerged.

Takashima was first elected to the town assembly in 1988 and continued to serve as an assembly member until June, when he resigned his seat. He also gave up the chairmanship of the assembly in March. Police started investigating the case in August when the association filed an accusation. Police suspect he may have embezzled more funds.