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Accountant jailed for stealing £200,000

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31st Jul 2013
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Accountant Robert Wilson has been jailed for two years for stealing £195,719.53 from his employer over a five year period, costing eight people their jobs.

Wilson, who worked in the accounts department for six years before being promoted to chief financial controller for manufacturing company S&W, pleaded guilty to stealing from his bosses.

Peterborough Crown Court heard how the accountant set up a series of falsified invoices to drip feed £3,000 a month to his bank account between July 2007 and November 2012.

After Wilson went off sick with stress, the company bought in a chartered accountant to cover while he was off, who discovered that some payments from the previous month could not be reconciled.

When the firm dug deeper, the police were called in and Wilson was arrested and charged.

Managing director of the company, Graham Whyles, told the Wisbech Standard Wilson was a “spineless, despicable thief” who stole the money to fund a cocaine habit.

“He was very clever at how he did it,” Whyles said. “Not only did he hoodwink us he hoodwinked the auditors.”

Whyles also said the thefts took place when he took his eye off the ball as he nursed his sick mother who was dying of cancer. “All the time she was dying he was taking money,” he said.

Whyles said that as a result of Wilson’s actions they had to make eight people redundant.

“Not only has he stolen from me but in turn he stole from his colleagues. We have had many redundancies, young people with mortgages and children,” he added.

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Replies (8)

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By ver1tate
02nd Aug 2013 13:34

he hoodwinked the auditors.”

Would this not be regarded as professional negligence? At a drip feed of £3000 a month, this has been going on for 6 years. How many audits have they had? Yet it did not take long to spot it eventually.

I would say someone is in for a bright future.

If you pay for a vacuum cleaner, you expect it to get rid of the dirt.

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By The Black Knight
02nd Aug 2013 13:29

true cost

The true cost is never the amount stolen.

The knock on effects are huge.

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By J.R.BOX
02nd Aug 2013 13:31

Chartered

" After Wilson went off sick with stress, the company bought ( sic ) in a chartered accountant to cover while he was off, who discovered that some payments from the previous month could not be reconciled ".  Anybody of a lesser ilk and those reconciliations would have been beyond their grasp !. 

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By Ned Ludd
03rd Aug 2013 01:35

Strange comment jr box
Are you suggesting that only a chartered accountant is capable of reconciling payments.?

Some of the very worst work I have ever seen was by chartered accountants.

On the flip side the best accountant I've ever met was chartered.

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By J.R.BOX
03rd Aug 2013 08:09

Hi Ned

It was an attempt at sarcasm. The author seemed to imply that a Chartered Accountant was the solution to the problem. In fact any competent replacement would have been just as effective, 

And yes, I agree with your comments.

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By Ned Ludd
03rd Aug 2013 10:19

Ooops
Sort jr.

Was very late when I posted that

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David Winch
By David Winch
03rd Aug 2013 11:07

Fooling the auditors

A little digging indicates that the victim company was S & W Process Engineering Ltd whose accounts have not been subject to audit since the ones for the year ended 30 June 2004.

It appears that the £195,000 fraud was carried out by way of 144 transactions over a period of several years from 2007 to 2012.

There is, of course, no guarantee that if the accounts HAD been subject to audit a fraud carried out in this way would have been uncovered.

David

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By The Black Knight
04th Aug 2013 11:32

Expectations gap

tis a Strange world we live in.

When the general public (non accountants) think the purpose of an audit is to detect fraud.

That an accountant is an expensive adding up machine. Especially when you mention the word chartered on accounting web.

Even the company thought an audit was done when it wasn't.

Still the article referred above by link seems to have been cut and pasted from another article as after being sentenced he is then expected to receive a sentence.

 

 

"Yesterday, former accountant Robert Wilson was jailed for two years at Peterborough Crown Court for stealing £195,719.53 from his employers over a five year period.

The 32 year old has been warned to expect a prison sentence after pleading guilty to stealing from his bosses."

 

And how can you be a former accountant if you never were an accountant? Has he now changed his belief and decided to be a builder or something?

 

 

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