Defrauded employer of £110,000 to clear debts

Cyle Hooper, 28, who at a previous hearing had given his address as Flat 1A, Berkeley House, Havilland Street, St Peter Port, admitted defrauding the Blue Diamond Group when he appeared in the Royal Court.

He was sent to prison for 18 months for what Judge Catherine Fooks called ‘a serious breach of trust against your employer’.

The charge related to 328 transactions involving sums between £3 and £898 that totalled £110,441.

Advocate Jenny McVeigh, prosecuting, told the court that the charge spanned the period from January 2012 to January this year, though it was accepted that the offending had begun in 2014.

In January 2012, the defendant joined the staff at the garden centre and worked himself up to the role of garden department manager. This gave him some ability to control finance and he could write off losses.

In January this year, a financial controller noticed that a large number of refunds had been made to a debit card that was linked to the defendant. An internal investigation found that £2,000 had been paid to the defendant’s debit card over the previous three months.

He was arrested and electronic devices, watches and jewellery were found during a search of his home.

In interview with police he admitted his offending, but sought to minimise the extent of it.

The Economic and Financial Criminal Bureau began an investigation in February. Hooper then said he had had numerous debts and was being chased by online stores and loan companies for money he owed. When told the full extent of his crime he said he was shocked at the amount involved.

He had not considered he had gained from it as he no longer had the money. He had looked on it as a loan and had always intended to pay it back. When he repaid one debt, he would just start another.

His advocate, Liam Roffey, said his client had held his hands up from the start. When the internal investigation commenced he said he did not know how much he had stolen, but would accept whatever he was told.

He knew what his employer expected of him and knew he had let them down. By the time the offending was picked up, his criminal behaviour was ‘out of control’. When Hooper started the thefts, he was just 20 and had owed money to 25 different organisations.

Some of these were pay day loans which carried crippling interest rates. He always paid the most pressing one first.

When the first offence was committed he had £3.28 in his bank account, and there was £48 when the last one occurred.

‘You are not dealing with a man who lives a luxurious lifestyle,’ said Advocate Roffey. ‘The money in his bank account rarely exceeded £1,000 to £1,500. There was only £2.78 in his bank account yesterday.’

His very first pay packet had been used to pay rent as the family he was living with were facing eviction.

He now lived in a one-bedroom flat where the rent had gone up from £650 to £850 per month and he did not have a car.

He was a good man who had committed serious offences, Advocate Roffey said. He volunteered as a Scout leader and for St John Ambulance, and both were keen to have him back when these proceedings had finished.

In the court’s sentencing remarks, Judge Fooks said when first challenged about his behaviour by his manager, Hooper had lied to cover it up, but in interview, he said he had made ‘a horrible, horrible mistake,’ and was not proud of it.

He had £38,000 in unsecured loans at the time of his arrest.

The offending was aggravated by the length of it and there had been an element of sophistication and subterfuge, she said. Hooper could be treated as a man of previously good character, and had demonstrated considerable insight into what he had done.