Manager fleeced pubs out of £32k in takings
A DERbyshIRE pub manager is facing jail after he admitted stealing £32,000 worth of takings.
James stirling, 58, banked cash into his own account and also fitted a card machine that fed takings straight to him.
Derby Crown Court heard he stole from two pubs he was placed in charge of – the New Inn, in buxton, and later the Friendship Inn, in Glossop. both are owned by Robinsons brewery.
When bosses became suspicious of stirling, he fled and it took police a year to track him down.
stirling, an amputee who uses a wheelchair, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position. he is due to be sentenced today.
Abigail hill, prosecuting, said stirling was put in charge of the New Inn in April 2017 and then the Friendship Inn a few months later.
she said as part of his duties it was his responsibility to bank the cash each day from both pubs. but at the end of August, his employer noticed that money was not being deposited in the required bank accounts.
Mrs hill said: “he tried to contact the defendant to ask why the money was not being banked but could not contact him. On september 15, he (the owner) attended the New Inn. he saw one of the barmaids who told him she had been banking the money into an account that had been provided to her by the defendant.
“she said the last time she saw him was two days before, when he arrived at the pub and removed the takings from the safe.
“The owner returned on september 18 after being told the defendant was going to be there but Mr stirling had been and gone for two hours, having removed the takings again from the safe. It was also discovered the defendant had put a new card machine at the New Inn and the takings from it were going into one of his accounts.”
Mrs hill said stirling, who the court was told currently lives in a hospital in Preston, was not arrested and questioned until september 2018.
Mrs hill said the total loss to both pubs was £32,000 and that stirling had 26 previous convictions for more than 100 offences, including theft and fraud.
Judge Robert Egbuna adjourned the sentencing because the court’s custody suite does not have wheelchair access. Instead, stirling will appear via videolink from st Mary’s Wharf police station in Derby.