Another Gambling Addict Steals From Investors

Accountant facing jail for stealing £540,000 from investors to fund gambling addiction

• Lee Hammond defrauded £54,000 from three investors in his company
• £411,305.60 came from a development agency before a merger
• Defence lawyer said all the money he took was spent on a gambling
• Judge at Durham Crown Court told him he faces a prison sentence
• Admitted to five counts of fraud, three of theft and one of attempted theft

Lee Philip Hammond has been told to expect a jail

sentence for fraud, theft and attempted theft convictions

Richard Hartley-parkinson
PUBLISHED: 26 February 2013


An accountant with a gambling addiction is facing a possible jail sentence after he stole £540,000 from investors and employers to feed his habit.

Despite being on police bail, 30-year-old Lee Philip Hammond continued to take money to gamble after defrauding money from different companies in Durham.
In total he took £539,343.10, the bulk of which came before a merger. Durham Crown Court heard that he stole £54,000 over 15 months between October 2008 and January 2010 from three investors to the accountancy firm he ran.

He then defrauded a further £411,305.60 from Shildon and Sedgefield Development Agency, an agency set up to help give free advice and guidance to new businesses.
Following a merger, he took a further £73,437.50 from the newly-formed South Durham Enterprise Agency seven months later.

Hammond was arrested and questioned on fraud charges but later bailed.

Despite being under investigation he then took £1,957.91 from Town and City Management Ltd by creating false invoices.

He tried to take a further £3,750 from the same company, but was unsuccessful.

Defending him, Scott Smith said some of the money was made through the sale of accountancy software packages that did not exist and all the cash went on gambling.
 Judge Christopher Prince warned him that he should expect a prison term saying: 'Go away and put your affairs in order before you come to court. You know when you return here you must expect to receive a custodial sentence.'

 

Mr Smith continued: 'He is of previous good character, and he made a full confession, effectively handing himself in.

'We have obtained details of his gambling addiction and I think the court, in considering sentence, would also be assisted by a pre-sentence report prepared by the Probation Service.

 

'Some of the fraud, certainly from the confusion beneath all this, appears to be from what is a very profitable little business.
'It involved shares in the company, a company which was, effectively, the defendant.

'Investors, effectively, got a share in the company but he stole from the company and he doesn't seek to challenge that.'

Hammond, from Darlington, admitted five counts of fraud, three of theft, and one of attempted theft at Durham Crown Court yesterday.

He will be sentenced on March 22 when he will hear statements from his victims and was released on bail.



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