Director jailed over £1.6m fraud

Neale Ainscow lived the high life on the proceeds of his fraud, buying cars, expensive holidays and building up a valuable collection of fine wines.

By the time the fraud was discovered at DePuy International Ltd, a specialist medical equipment provider which is part of Johnson and Johnson, he had pocketed 852,000 from his activities, Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday.

Having joined the company in 1998 Ainscow was considered a "well respected and trusted" employee destined for further promotion, Philip Adams prosecuting told the court.

At the time of his arrest in January last year he was director of operations in the information technology group and was responsible for information systems at the companies manufacturing sites as well as planning future information technology requirements across the group.

He received a salary of 60,000 a year, which could be as much as 87,000 when bonuses were factored in.

Mr Adams said as part of his role Ainscow was authorised to buy equipment on behalf of the company and it was through that he abused his position.

Ainscow, 36 of Blackberry Way, Siddal, Halifax, admitted three charges of theft and three of converting criminal property.

Jailing him, Judge James Spencer QC said there had to be a significant sentence to mark dishonesty on such a scale.

The judge said: "You gained employment with the victims of your crime and were raised to a position of some responsibility and trust with them and there is no doubt were well paid for that responsibility.

"But you took advantage of the trust placed in you in order to steal on a large scale.

"It was prolonged dishonesty fuelled by your greed because it is quite clear you had spent the money on goods which anyone would describe as luxury items."

The judge said because Ainscow had got others to countersign some of the documents involved he had also thrown suspicion on them through his selfishness.

He added: "You say the system was lax, well it may have been, but when people did sign documents they didn't expect them to be dishonest."

Mr Adams told the court between January 2006 and December 2008, Ainscow ordered computer equipment including "vast numbers of hard drives" from suppliers with whom he already had a good working relationship.

Because of that trust they did not require from him formal purchase order documents and when the invoices for the orders he placed arrived they were sent for him to sign off and were then paid.

In 2006 15 fraudulent orders were found, in 2007 44 orders and in 2008 114 invoices arrived on fraudulent orders he had placed.

The equipment he ordered was then sold on to Global Computer Services Ltd in Sussex, who paid the money direct into Ainscow's bank account.

After his arrest Ainscow told police he would arrange delivery direct to them or using a courier paid by a company credit card.

He said he sold at a discount price and GCS thought he was doing so legitimately using his position as a bulk buyer.

The system had changed during the period concerned and he had needed a counter signature for amounts over 10,000 and he accepted he had taken advantage of those he asked to sign who were unaware of his dishonesty.

David Tyrer for Ainscow told the court he had initially started buying and selling computer equipment on Internet site e-Bay using his own money to supplement his income.

But when that market dried up he began using the company to purchase items and as he got more and more used to the extra money coming in the offences "spiralled almost out of control" but he had stopped what he was doing before his arrest.

He said Ainscow, who had married in 2005, felt under stress during the period because he and his wife were having difficulty conceiving and it was found through tests to rest with him.

Ainscow had lied to his wife about where the money was coming from and the marriage had since failed.

Nothing but the best...

EXPENSIVE clothes, trips abroad and luxury goods were just some of the items purchased by Neale Ainscow using his ill-gotten gains.

When police searched his home they found he had built up an extensive wine collection with some bottles costing as much as 2,000.

He spent $20,000 on a single watch during a holiday to America which itself cost 15,000, Philip Adams, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court.

He had bought an Audi car for 40,000 and then part-exchanged it for another model using more money, as well as other cars.

When he was arrested he told police he planned to use more money to buy a house.

A timetable has now been set for confiscation proceedings to recover the proceeds of his crimes.