Worker in £75k fraud has to pay old firm £300
VISION EXPRESS EMPLOYEE HAD GAMBLING ADDICTION
A VISION Express worker has been ordered to pay £300 compensation to his former employer after a staggering fraud worth more than £75,000.
After a financial investigation delved into Ravinder Saini’s assets, the total recoverable amount, with interest, was determined to be £82,552 from a joint benefit figure of £136,868.
A judge said the order should contain a phrase to read: “£82,552 of the recoverable amount specified in this confiscation order represents a benefit received” by the defendant and a coaccused.
His co-accused, dealt with separately by the courts, is an individual who had been ordered to pay £290 compensation to Vision Express. Saini’s realisable asset was £300.
Their finances were looked at under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, where proceeds of crime is the money or assets gained by criminals whilst undertaking criminal activities and money laundering.
The investigation was ordered, and determined on Tuesday after Saini, 33, of Maidstone Drive, Wollaton, siphoned the money when he worked at head office at Ruddington Fields Business Park, Mere Way, Ruddington.
Nottingham Crown Court had heard he was a store development administrator for Vision Express. His role involved invoice payments to the key suppliers and for the collection of funds owed to Vision Express.
Saini had asked for refunds to be paid to bank accounts not belonging to the company. He used letterheaded paper but his own bank details.
This was done on 14 occasions and he used his own account on 12 of those. The total loss was £75,679.78, and the payment into his account was £56,535.27.
The fraud dated between March 19, 2017, and December 9, 2018. It came to light when other employees chased refunds to the companies and the companies stated the payments had been made.
The employees looked at the bank details and they were the defendant’s. Leanne Summers, prosecuting, had said Saini admitted the offending.
“He said he had a gambling addiction,” she told the court. “He said, at the time of the offending, he was drinking a lot and abusing over the counter drugs.”
Saini has a previous conviction for a low-value theft at the age of 19. Stephen Tettey, mitigating, previously told the court his client’s mental health appeared to be a trigger to his gambling. In 2016 and 2017, Saini started to experience auditory hallucinations. He got proper support in 2018, well after the offences began.
“It was a psychotic episode,” added Mr Tettey. “The defendant was hearing voices. He was trying to block out these voices”.
As he was sentenced, Recorder Richard Davis had said Saini had pleaded guilty to fraud. “It is not just any offence of fraud, it is an offence of fraud of breach of trust,” he had told him. “You were employed in a responsible position for Vision Express for a long period of time - some 18 months.”
He had siphoned more than £56,000 into his bank account and an additional £20,000 into another.
He had noted Saini had suffered from mental health issues and he had seen a number of letters from the NHS that supported that position and the sort of mental health issues he is battling. “That led you to having a gambling habit,” added the Recorder. “The fraud was to fund your gambling habit which resulted from your ill health.
“I have read character references from family members and others. I have noted you were volunteering during the Covid crisis and committed significant hours to your unpaid volunteering.
“You pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and made a full confession to police at an early stage”.
He imposed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, saying “there is strong personal mitigation” and “this came out of ill health, rather than greed” and “there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation that has started”.
A curfew for six months was also decided.