Dog home boss in £900k fraud to fund online gambling habit
AN animal shelter boss who gambled away £ 640,000 of the charity’s money was jailed for five years yesterday.
Simon Price, 53, diverted cash from legacies left to Birmingham Dogs Home to feed his online betting habit in a £900,000 fraud carried out with his wife over four years.
Alayna Price, 39, head of fundraising for the charity, helped herself to £254,000, using some of the cash to pay for the couple’s lavish wedding – which took place just six weeks before their arrest.
By his own estimation, Price had frittered away around £700,000 on his Betfair online account since 2009, Birmingham Crown Court was told. In the grip of his addiction, he used one bequest of £60,000 – intended to keep ‘animals safe and warm’ – to cover his mounting losses and directed charity funds to be paid into his own accounts.
His wife, meanwhile, funnelled five will bequests, including one for £150,000, into her personal Lloyds account, blowing the cash to pay off credit cards, a loan, and the couple’s wedding in 2016. The fraud came to light last November when police began examining the couple’s dealings after £399,274 was reported missing from the sale of a dogs’ home property in Digbeth, Birmingham.
They discovered that chief executive Price − who oversaw the sale − had instructed proceeds to be paid to him directly, claiming it was a business account used by the charity.
Fearing his deception was about to come to light, he then flew alone to Barcelona before returning to face the music. Inquiries also revealed Price had created false invoices from solicitors, construction firms and marketing companies.
Madhu Rai, prosecuting, said the couple tried to cover up their crimes, with Price throwing a hard drive into a field, and his wife deleting incriminating financial records from a computer. Both admitted multiple counts of fraud by abuse of position.
Judge Patrick Thomas QC told Price his crimes ‘while in the grip of a gambling addiction’ had ‘weakened public confidence’ in the work of the dogs’ home, damaging its ability to raise the £1.85million needed each year to keep its doors open.
He described Price as the ‘dominating figure’ but said his wife acted for her ‘own purposes’. Alayna Price, who is seven months pregnant with her second child, was given a two-year suspended sentence after repaying around half of the money she stole.
The couple have now separated. Police have seized their two West Midlands properties which will be sold and the money handed back to the dogs’ home under proceeds of crime legislation.
The charity’s chairman John Wheatley said there had been a ‘serious breach of trust’.