RAC worker netted nearly £300,000 with 474 false claims

AN accounts worker for the RAC defrauded the company out of nearly £300,000 over the course of a decade.

Married dad Matthew JumanSygrove blamed his mortgage, utility bills and council tax for carrying out the racket whilst working at the Walsall office.

Birmingham Crown Court heard the 48-year-old did not live a “lavish lifestyle” but recorder Tom Walkling concluded most of the money must have been taken out of “greed”.

Juman-Sygrove, formerly of the Graiseley area of Wolverhampton but more recently of Almond Close, Driffield, Yorkshire, admitted one offence of fraud and was sentenced to three years in jail.

Prosecutor Rachel Pennington told the court that between 2013 and 2023 he made 474 payments to himself, which appeared to be made out to a contractor who had in fact retired in 2012.

She added the more recent transactions were for “work” done in London, even though he was based in Scotland.

When the RAC investigated it spoke with the contractor who confirmed he had not carried out the work.

Ms Pennington said the individual amounts ranged from £600 to £1,000, which for an organisation as big as the RAC “were relatively trivial sums, therefore they were not picked up as being suspicious in the earlier part”.

In total, Juman-Sygrove pocketed £299,942.30. When he was arrested he admitted what he had done to the police, but simply blamed “debts”.

Jason Patel, defending, said: “The reality is, there was him, his wife and two young children. Debt started to amass. They do not come from a lavish lifestyle. It was the mortgage, utility bills, council tax. He did all he could in respect of loans and credit cards.”

Mr Patel added that JumanSygrove only had about £1,000 in a bank account although he did have a house.

He told the court the defendant had now split from his wife and had been living with his parents in Yorkshire.

Recorder Walkling, passing sentence, said: “You held a trusted position in the RAC and, starting about ten years ago, you began transferring money to your account. Over the next ten years you took just under £300,000 that didn’t belong to you – 474 separate payments. That’s 474 separate times you decided to take money for yourself that didn’t belong to you. You made significant efforts to hide your offending and cover your tracks.

“When you were interviewed by the police you said you started the fraud due to debt. That may be correct. It can’t be the case you were in debt for much of that period so much of your offending must have been done out of greed rather than necessity.”