Jewellery shop boss stole £75k from business
AHEARTLESS fraudster stole £75,000 from the Southport jewellery shop he ran while his business partner cared for her dying partner.
Carl Gilroy, 57, funnelled money out of Collingwood Gold Jewellery over three years from 2015 to 2018 through dodgy transactions.
All the while, co-owner Karen Pritchard was at home taking care of her partner, David Saunders, who was suffering from a brain tumour.
Gilroy and Ms Pritchard had become co-director of the Tulketh Streetbased business after being picked by the shop’s long running owner to take over upon his retirement.
They had both worked for owner Tony Aspinall for about 10 years before he stepped down and suggested they take it over.
They began running the shop in 2015, with Gilroy in charge of the accounting and Mrs Pritchard, who was not involved in any wrongdoing, running the front-of-house operations.
In 2016, she took time off to care for Mr Saunders and Gilroy exploited his role to move money into his own accounts, while payments to creditors including HMRC went unpaid.
With the business apparently failing, Ms Pritchard was convinced to pump another £10,000 in the business, while her father also invested £30,000.
According to documents submitted by liquidators SPK Financial Solutions, Mrs Pritchard reported Gilroy to police for stealing from the business.
The report states: “Payments due to creditors, including HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), were not being paid, despite Mr Gilroy’s assurances that they were.
“Following an internal investigation into the company’s finances, the director believes that circa £189,000 had been embezzled over the period of 30 months prior to March 2018.
“It is understood that payments were being made from the company’s bank account under appropriate creditor references in order to make them appear as bona fide payments, however the funds were actually being transferred into bank accounts where Mr Gilroy was the beneficiary.”
Gilroy, of Wavertree Nook Road, Liverpool, was reported to police and subsequently charged with fraud relating to a sum of £76,894, which Mrs Pritchard explained was reduced once his shares in the business and wages were factored in.
He pleaded guilty and was spared immediate jail when he was given a suspended two-year sentence at Liverpool Crown Court in August last year.
In January, a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing took place and Gilroy was ordered to pay back £66,000 or face three years’ imprisonment.
And in a further punishment published this month, he was given a 12-year disqualification from being a director of any business. The ruling in that case referred stated that he “misappropriated funds totalling £85,003.08 from the company”.
Despite the damage caused to the business, Mrs Pritchard said she had paid back all the creditors and was able to reopen the shop alone under the new business Karen Pritchard’s Jewellers.
Speaking to the Visiter, she said she felt “naive” to have been conned but had felt no reason to doubt someone she had known and trusted for so long.
She was further dismayed by his lack of apology, saying that Gilroy had only attempted to justify his behaviour by saying that “he was taking from Peter to pay Paul”.
Mrs Pritchard said: “All he said was that he’d got in too deep. He said he was planning to pay it back so much a month but that never happened.”
When she went to confront him at his home for a final time, his wife learned of his crimes for the first time and had not even been told he had left the business.
Mrs Pritchard sat in court as he was sentenced and this week said: “I think if he had apologised, that wouldn’t make it better but it would been something. He had no remorse whatsoever.”
SELFISH motorists blocked the entrance to Southport Beach, preventing access for lifesaving crews.
Southport Lifeboat had to renew its frequent pleas for people to leave space clear at the entrance to the beach after it was blocked last week.
Sefton Council has kept the beach car park closed to try to deter large numbers visiting but, as is often the case, drivers responded by parking in front of the usual access point.
Crews from the volunteer service were unable to pass through and open the gates for lifeboats and quad bikes to reach the beach.
The group has again warned the public not to stop this happening.
A spokesman said: “The slipway is our way of accessing the beach to launch our lifeboats. Should we be required to attend a service call, our lifeboats would not be able to launch – which could have potentially life-threatening consequences.
“With lifeguard services temporarily suspended on our beach, coupled with the good weather, there has been an increase in call-outs for emergency crews that is putting extra strain on the volunteer coastal rescue teams.
“We understand that the public want to exercise freely on your coastline, however, we appeal to the public to consider where they’re parking.”