SEVEN former private bankers from Citibank were hauled to court on Tuesday and charged with stealing clients' information before they left to join rival bank UBS.

This is the first time that such criminal offences involving a bank has come before the courts.

Six are relationship managers (RMs) , including top performer Low Siok Liang, 33, and Jonathan Seah Thiam Heng, 44, who is in-charge of the team.

A service relationship manager, who is Low's assistant, was also charged.

The other RMs charged are Wendy Quek Lien Lien, 30, Jelene Lee Kit Peng, 34, Esther Lim Siew May, 31, and Lydia Koh Meng Yang, 28.

The seven are said to have acted in three separate groups independently of each other.

They are alleged to have either accessed Citibank's computers to get information without authority or sending files containing customer information to outside email addresses.

A total of 1,223 charges were brought against them. They each face between three and 264 charges.

The bulk of the charges are under the Computer Misuse Act. Two of the accused persons also face charges for destruction of evidence and for disclosing customer information.

The accused, each represented by a different lawyer, were granted bail of between $10,000 and $40,000. The case is fixed for a pre-trial conference on Feb 25.

In 2006, Citibank brought a civil suit against six of the seven. The case was settled out of court for undisclosed amounts.