MAN STOLE THOUSANDS FROM FIRM
But he tells trial ‘there was never a fraud’ with bus passes
AMAN responsible for banking a bus company’s cash admitted stealing money from the business.
Ian Wyn Jones told a jury he had been taking money for more than 20 years and none of his family knew what he was doing.
The 53-year-old, of Ffordd Carmel, Penygroes, added: “I’m not proud of what I’ve done.”
Jones, his father Eric Jones, 77, of Gerallt, Bontnewydd, and his brothers Keith, 51, of Caer Berllan, Llanddaniel, Anglesey, and Kevin Wyn, 54, of Llwyn Beuno, Bontnewydd, deny fraud and concealing money at Express Motors and are standing trial at Caernarfon Crown Court.
The jury have heard that the four oversaw a fraud in which lost or stolen concessionary bus passes were used fraudulently on bus services.
During a two-year period, there were 88,000 fraudulent “swipes” which generated payments for the Penygroes-based firm, the court heard.
The men also deny failing to pay all the cash taken by the business into the company bank account. In a 15-month period, more than £1.2m was taken in cash by the company, but only £690,000 was paid into the bank, the court heard.
Giving evidence in his defence, Ian Jones told the jury he was arrested in July 2014 by police. The following day, he took £30,500 in cash to a police station, explaining that the money was kept in reserve by the firm to cover emergencies and expenditure. The float would normally be £40,000, but Ian Jones admitted he “had helped myself to some of it”.
“How much would you take at a time?” his barrister Andrew Jebb asked.
“Maybe £1,000, once a month or so,” he said.
Ian Jones, who was responsible for banking the cash takings from Express, said the money would be deposited once a week in Porthmadog but he would take the cash home for safe keeping. He explained the garage in Penygroes had been broken into several times in 2007 and the family had decided it would be best to keep the cash at his home.
He was also quizzed by Mr Jebb about cash payments into his credit card account.
The jury was told cash deposits of about £94,000 were made into the account during a six-year period between 2008 and 2014. Ian Jones said he used the card to buy spare parts for buses and had been repaid in cash from the takings. Roughly £55,000 had been spent on Express Motors, he said.
Other amounts were for trips to car rallies which he organised for friends. He would use the card to pay and receive cash from the others on the trip. He also said he would pay cash towards his wife Denise’s credit card account.
Some £71,000 had been paid in, and Ian Jones admitted some had been taken from the Express Motors business.
The jury have seen photos of high-end designer goods found by police at their home. But Ian Jones said that, while some of the goods were genuine, some were fake.
He accounted for about £54,000 of the cash paid into his personal bank account as money received from his parents or parents-in-law to buy houses in Penygroes. The court heard he owns three properties which he rents in the village.
Asked by Mr Jebb if he did any other work, Ian Jones said he would buy cars and convert them into rally cars.
He then sold them on, doubling or trebling his money. He would also repair cars at the garage during the evenings. He agreed these activities were not declared to the tax authorities. Cross-examined, he told Matthew Dunford, prosecuting, he was unaware of excessive swiping of bus passes at Express Motors. He said he was shocked to hear of the practice and claimed drivers were responsible.
“But it was Express Motors who were benefiting,” the lawyer said. “It was the company who made the claims.”
Mr Dunford said: “The truth is you are guilty of these charges.” Jones said: “No, there was never a fraud.”
The trial previously heard E Express Motors owner Eric Wyn Jones blame Gwynedd Council managers for not cancelling lost or stolen bus passes, which allowed these cards to be used on his buses.
He said the claims he submitted to Gwynedd council were based on data from ticket m machines carried on Express Motors buses, but council chiefs wanted to believe his company was defrauding them because of a previous case involving another firm.
Cross examining Eric Jones p prosecuting barrister Mathew Dunford suggested he had lied to the police. The 77-year-old s said: “There was no fraud. Try a and get that into your head.
“The council wanted a fraud because they slipped up with Padarn Bus and they thought we were doing the same. We weren’t, we had no reason to. Express was run properly.”
Eric Jones said Gwynedd officials simply paid the claims he submitted and had not checked them properly.
He said he had not instructed drivers to swipe cards excessively or to instruct passengers to swipe bus passes twice.
Eric Jones maintained he was unaware why his own bus pass had been used hundreds of times on Express Motors services but he regularly drove their service buses and would on occasion use his pass.
“If an old lady got on the bus and had forgotten her card I would use my pass. Better to do that than tell her to get off,” he told the jury.
The trial also heard a transport manager who said he earned £144 a week told police he was ‘surprised’ to learn £89,000 had been paid into his bank account over six years.
During police interviews Kevin Wyn Jones told officers he was paid £144 a week and was happy to receive that if the company was successful, a trial at Caernarfon court heard.
“One day the company would be mine,” the jury heard he had said.
Explaining his financial affairs to the officers, Kevin Jones said he was divorced and lived alone and was able to manage on just £40 a week.
He is an Everton FC season ticket holder and drove coachloads of fans to Liverpool to see matches. Tips from the fans were spent on living expenses, he said. But he had not declared these to the tax authorities.
“I didn’t know you had to declare that,” he said during an interview with police.
The officers said an examination of his bank account showed regular payments being paid in and Kevin Jones said he was surprised when the detectives told him this amounted to about £89,000 in a six-year period from 2008.
Kevin Jones said he knew of no misuse of bus passes and had not instructed drivers to swipe the cards excessively.
The trial continues.