Sales assistant fleeced store out of £55,300 to fund gambling addiction
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Grimsby Telegraph
TRUSTED shop worker James Jennings fleeced his bosses of more than £55,300 in false refunds in a desperate bid to fund his spiralling gambling addiction, a court heard.
He had racked up more than £78,000 on online gambling and once spent £1,800 on poker in just one night, the court was told.
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Breached trust: James Jennings racked up more than £78,000 on online gambling.
The first involved abusing his position to the tune of £36,661 between April 1 and December 31 last year and the other involved £18,715 between January 1 and March 23 this year.
Mark Kendall, prosecuting, told Grimsby Crown Court that it was discovered that refunds totalling £18,000 to £20,000 had been given by the store in Cleethorpe Road, Grimsby.
A customer later contacted the store on March 22 about furniture which was due to be delivered but was told that records showed that the order had been cancelled and a full refund of £1,057 had been given.
Inquiries were made and Jennings told store manager Lee Winter: "I'm sorry. I put this on my card. It's the first time I have done it."
He admitted he was responsible for most of the £18,000 to £20,000 refunds, with payments being made to his credit card since May the previous year.
He admitted that between April last year and March this year, he had made refunds to his credit card 51 times, totalling £55,376.
He said he had spent more than £78,000 on online gambling.
The missing money had caused a significant problem for the company during what were difficult times, said Mr Kendall.
Andrew Bailey, mitigating, said Jennings made admissions almost straight away and, during his six or seven years with the company, had previously been hard-working, reliable and trustworthy.
"All of this came as a great shock to those who worked with him," said Mr Bailey.
"He became addicted to online gambling and he has spent not only the money that makes up the charges but his wife's bonus and their savings."
Jennings spent £1,800 in one night on online poker, took out loans to fund his addiction and then began the frauds.
His wife worked as a manager and he took £10,000 to £15,000 of her bonuses that had been put aside.
She knew nothing about the matters. It had put their relationship under a great deal of strain and they were living separately, said Mr Bailey.
"He is ashamed of his behaviour, is remorseful for his actions and wishes he could turn the clock back," added Mr Bailey.
Jennings still had £3,500 of debts and was seeing Gambling Anonymous.
Daryn Brookes, group financial director for Ramsdens, said: "He was a very trusted member of staff and he has taken advantage of his position of trust to line his own pockets.
"There is never any justification for this kind of thing but we might have seen things differently if he had done it because he was in trouble or had a problem. He did it because he had a gambling
problem, which makes what he did purely selfish.
"The Ramsden family always look after their employees. It is a family business and once that trust is broken it is very, very painful for everyone – not just the family but the people who worked with him.
"Times are very tough for high street shops and to have someone lining their pockets when everyone is working so hard together is a huge blow."
Sentence was deferred until January 14.
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