A FORMER Barclays Bank employee threatened to reveal security codes for millions of credit cards worldwide unless the company paid him £25m, a court was told.

It is alleged Graham Browne of Knutsford Road, Cranage tried to blackmail the bank after he became 'angry and disillusioned' at work.

He threatened to disclose the codes unless the money was paid to 14 people, the Old Bailey in London heard on Monday.

And when police searched his home they found 'items of a sensitive nature' hidden in a secret compartment under a kitchen sink.

Browne, 57, head of the team responsible for devising code patterns for bank cards, became 'disillusioned, bitter and angry at the lack of recognition' at the bank for his abilities, said Sally Bennett-Jenkins, prosecuting.

In 1999 he complained that his suggestions for improving security were not being taken up, and he resigned later that year.

But he continued to send Barclay's memos about security despite being banned from the administration centre in Knutsford and launched his blackmail campaign in March last year by sending a letter to the bank's chief executive, alleged Miss Bennett-Jenkins.

Browne admitted writing the letters, but claimed they were a way of highlighting the bank's lax security and were meant as a joke.

It is claimed that in the letters signed TB Shaw, his original name he demanded a team of experts named by him should be paid £1.7m each to ensure security should not be breached.

Browne, who had compiled information which enabled him to crack codes to come up with 16-digit combinations for credit cards, and some members of his former team were among the potential beneficiaries.

Miss Bennett-Jenkins added: 'What emerges is that he was bitter, resentful and angry, and the target of his anger was Barclays.

Regarding the blackmail plan, she claimed: 'If any such information were to be made public the security of the bank's entire debit and credit operation would be in jeopardy.'

Browne was arrested on September 29 last year and denies one charge of blackmail dating between March 8, 2000 and September 27, 2000.

The trial continues.