Bet shop worker exploits computer glitch to direct thieving worth £40k

A BOOKIES worker was yesterday jailed over a Back to the Future-style scam that netted him more than £40,000.

Gavin Thomson, 27, found a glitch in Coral’s computer system that let him place bets after events had finished.

He gave friends cash to go into branches in Dundee and Forfar to put on coupons on sporting events for which he knew the results.

The fraud echoed the plot of sci-fi movie Back to the Future II, in which Marty McFly’s nemesis Biff Tannen travels back in time with sports results to place winning bets.

Thomson was jailed for a year after he admitted stealing £40,300 in less than three months.

Thomson was a manager’s assistant at the Forfar and Dundee Coral branches when in 2015, he worked out that a glitch in the system allowed him to put through late bets.

Fiscal depute Saima Rasheed told Dundee Sheriff Court: “He began to ask customers and friends to place bets in the Dundee and Forfar stores on his behalf and he would provide them with stake money.”

Thomson was rumbled after Coral carried out an audit of their Forfar shop in January 2016 and uncovered the glitch. Ms Rasheed added: “The assessor discovered 64 bets placed after the events took place that had been processed by the accused in Forfar.

“The total loss at this branch was £17,500.

“The assessor ascertained he also worked at Dundee and discovered 55 bets placed after the events took place that had been processed by the accused in Dundee. The total loss in this branch amounted to £22,800.” Thomson confessed he had carried out the scam to make up for his personal gambling losses.

Ms Rasheed said: “He said his gambling problem started with fruit machines and got bad when his daughter was born and got out of control and he spent all of his wages.

“He stated he spent all the money he obtained in gambling machines and casinos.

“He was informed that he was sometimes going away with around £1000 per shift.”

Thomson, from Forfar, pleaded guilty to two charges of fraud between October 2015 and January 2016.

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael told Thomson: “The sum involved and the breach of trust mean.” He added: “There’s no option other than custody.”

He spent it all on gambling machines & casinos

SAIMA RASHEED DEPUTE FISCAL