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Officials jailed for dishonesty pay back £92,000 from pension funds
A COUNCIL has recovered nearly £92,000 in pension contributions from two officials who were jailed last year for "disgraceful dishonesty".
Paul Hinks, 41, and 35-year-old Neil Poskitt plundered East Riding Council funds for almost four years to splash out on a range of purchases, most of which they sold on to family, friends and colleagues.
Last September the men were ordered to repay the council a total of 108,000 after pleading guilty at Hull Crown Court to to conspiracy to steal goods belonging to the authority.
The authority has now announced that it has recovered a further 91,596 from their pension funds, making a total of 200,000 which is now back in council coffers.
Hinks, who was the council's housing maintenance manager, and lived in Snaith, was line manager to Poskitt, a housing maintenance officer.
The pair sold most of the goods on at a discount – but kept some things for themselves, including a 6,000 in-car entertainment system for Hinks' Subaru.
Their crimes went undetected for so long because the goods only appeared on documents as order numbers and both men were authorised to sign the receipts.
Their haul included 34,000 of car parts, iPods worth 25,000, 11,000 of motorcycle parts, cameras, showers, a fridge freezer, a karaoke machine, sunglasses, camping equipment and plasma TVs.
Their actions came to light after three whistleblowers came forward in December 2006 to draw attention to concerns about how much was being spent from one budget and how much was going through a particular supplier.
A report to the council's audit committee yesterday said spending went up from 65,000 a year to 450,000 a year with the supplier over the time that the fraud was taking place.
It says Hinks has repaid 55,000 using equity in his home while Poskitt had to raise 53,000 by liquidating assets – including a kit car built using parts fraudulently purchased through the council.
Of the pensions, the report said: "The actual loss to the individuals is significantly greater than the pension pot recovered as clearly the ex-employees would have looked forward to a pension payable over many years to themselves, widows or dependents."
It says the fraud was "exceptional" as it depended on the collusion of two senior staff and a supplier "willing to provide goods outside the normal normal business scope."
The council insists lessons have been learned.
Heads of service now have to undertake an annual fraud risk assessment.
It also claims that it proves the effectiveness of their own whistleblowing procedure: "Reporting concerns relating to colleagues and managers can be seen as difficult, however the staff concerned understood the procedures to follow and felt confident in the protection that would be afforded by those involved in the investigation.
"The names of the whistleblowers have been kept confidential as a safeguard to those involved."
Hull Crown Court heard that Hinks could not explain his actions when he was arrested but that he harboured a grudge against his employer. Simon Waley, prosecuting, said he felt "undervalued" and "overlooked for promotion."
He was jailed for 21 months and Poskitt of Myrtle Avenue, Selby, to 18 months after Judge Michael Mettyear said that he had no alternative but to jail the pair because of their "quite disgraceful dishonesty."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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