Jail for clerk in £400,000 cheque fiddle

A CLERK who swindled almost £400,000 out of his employers by forging cheques to fund an extravagant lifestyle has been sentenced to three years in jail.

Lawrence Grant, 61, of Leeds stole the money over an eight year period after being made redundant and getting a new job with a significantly lower salary, a court heard.

The married father, who worked as a purchase ledger clerk at CGC Events, a catering company which caters for events and racecourse meetings, earned a salary of £12,960 a year which was supplemented by a payout he received when he left his job as an office manager for West Yorkshire Engineers in 2001.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Despite this, by 2002 he had found a way of cheating the company’s payment system by altering cancelled cheques from legitimate suppliers and wrote them to himself, forging the signatures.

He paid himself thousands of pounds so that he could continue leading the high life he had grown accustomed to.

He paid off his credit card bills and continued gambling, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Grant admitted seven counts of theft and two offences of transferring criminal property following his arrest in 2009.

Related topics: