Hotel manager stole £170k
THE general manager of an upmarket Cotswolds hotel who stole more than £170,000 from his employers spent the money on “clothes, hotels and male com- panionship,” a court was told.
Paul Thompson, 44, got away with his frauds for three years but was caught when he confessed all in a suicide letter to his mother, Gloucester Crown Court heard.
Thompson did not go through with the death threat and was arrested as a result of his letter.
He then admitted his crimes and was fully cooperative with the police, the court was told.
Thompson, of Hampden Way, Wellesbourne, who ran the Lords of the Manor Hotel at Upper Slaughter until his crimes were discovered, pleaded guilty to defrauding the hotel owners, Empire Ventures Ltd, of £157,428 between June 2013 and May 2016.
He also admitted obtaining £15,572 by fraud from the Cotswold Finest Hotels consortium by abusing his position as its treasurer between May 2012 and May 2016.
After hearing that Thompson suffers from physical and mental illnesses, Judge Michael Harington spared him jail and let him walk free with a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years.
He also ordered him to do 200 hours of unpaid work.
Told that Thompson has repaid £62,000 of the money he stole but now has no assets, the judge formally certified his total benefit from crime as £173,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Judge Harington made a nominal confiscation order against Thompson for just £1. However, should Thompson come into any money in the future he will be liable to repay the full amount outstanding.
The court heard that Thompson’s fraud against the Lords of the Manor Hotel, which has 26 rooms and a Michelin- listed restaurant in a 17th century former rectory, were carried out over a three-year period when he was being paid a salary of £45,000 a year.
Judge Harington told Thompson: “This was an extremely serious breach of trust over a significant period of time.
“You are of previous good character. You confessed before anyone knew about it. The sen- tencing guidelines are not tramlines and I can depart from them if I feel it is appropriate.
“I take into account the fact that you have very poor health, you have been diagnosed with AIDS, you have colitis, which has an impact on your ability to absorb medication, you have a blood clot on your lung and you have very severe depression.”