BENT BOOKIE GAVE PALS WINNING SLIPS
Scam earned him thousands, court told Jail for golfing thefts
A BOOKIE has been spared jail after being caught handing out more than £17,000 in winning bets to fund his cocaine habit. Luca Bartley doled out the fixed-odds betting slips to pals while he was working at Ladbrokes in Sutton High Street, south west London, and shared the cash with mates after they picked up their nolose bets.
Croydon Crown Court heard how he handed out slips worth £17,290 to friends and associates between January and June last year.
The 22-yearold, of Sutton, told the court he had stolen the money to pay off a string of drug debts which he had racked up during a “low point in his life” when he had a £1,000-a-week cocaine habit.
The court heard how the Bartley handed out a range of fixed odds betting slips, from £20 to £1,255 over the sixmonth period.
Addiction
Bosses at Ladbrokes sacked Bartley after noticing “irregularities” whenever Bartley was working at the bookies.
Sam
Blom-cooper, defending, told the court that “everything” Bartley stole was “to pay for his addiction”.
But Judge Warwick Mckinnon, in reply to the defence lawyer, said: “So what? I’m not impressed by that at all.
“He stole the money and blew it all on cocaine, it’s a familiar story and a very serious matter.”
Bartley is now working as a £300-aweek labourer with his father, the court heard.
He pleaded guilty to theft by an employee and was ordered to repay the full amount to the bookies at £100-aweek.
He was also given a six month jail term, suspended for two years. A GAMBLING addict who made £100k nicking golf gear from his boss and flogging them on ebay has been jailed.
Steven Fulcher, 27, stole clothing and clubs from the Tim Jenkins Golf Academy in Stockton-on-tees, where he had worked for four years.
But the shop worker flogged the academy’s stock on ebay under the name bernie862.
Fulcher, of Ingleby Barwick, admitted theft, fraud by false representation and converting criminal property.
He was jailed for two years and four months.