‘It’s all gone up my nose’ admitted cocaine-addict finance boss in £31k fraud
ACOCAINE addict blew his second chance when he stole £31k from a firm who’d given him a job when he left prison.
Craig Oswald Stockham was jailed in 2014 for defrauding a charity he’d worked at as financial director, stealing £29,000.
When he was released his friend, Russell Warburton, gave him a second chance working at his firm, ICR Ideal Group Ltd.
But Stockham slipped back into his old ways and repaid his friend’s kindness by swindling him out of £31,000 to fund his £150-a-day cocaine habit.
When he was arrested, he told police he’d spent the cash on drugs, that it had gone “up his nose” and there was nothing left.
Yesterday Stockham, of Green Bank Villas in Flint, was jailed for two years.
Judge Niclas Parry told him he had thrown his friend’s kindness “back in his face”, adding: “You abused (the trust) with repeated acts of taking money from him so that you could fund a drugs habit.
“Over £31,000 of that firm’s money has gone and there is no prospect of it being recovered.”
To make matters worse Stockham was on licence from the previous prison sentence when his offending began.
Stockham, he said, had been in a high degree of trust but the repeated unauthorised transactions when he paid company money into his own account went on over a lengthy period of time.
Prosecuting barrister Ffion Tomos said that the defendant’s employer ran two companies, Arrow Fire and Arrow Secure.
Mr Warburton had known him for many years and was aware of the previous conviction.
But he decided to give him a chance and employed him as purchasing manager.
His £1,200 monthly salary was transferred into his personal account. But after three months he started to make unauthorised payments into his account.
An investigation showed that a total of 86 unauthorised transactions had taken place. He was sacked and handed himself in to police.
Stockham, 36, said that he was spending between £100 and £150 a day on cocaine.
In a victim impact statement Mr Warburton told how the offending had had a massive financial impact on the company.
The unauthorised transactions had left the company overdrawn.
“I feel that I have been betrayed by someone I put trust in to put his life back on track after previous issues,” he said.
He said he now had to deal with a financial burden which was created through no fault of his own.
The court heard that in 2014 Stockham was convicted of defrauding a non-profit-making company, a charity where he worked as a financial director.
He had taken £29,169 from Livewire and Culture Warrington, which managed leisure services for Warrington Borough Council, and was jailed for 16 months.
Defending barrister Myles Wilson said that his client had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity after he had made admissions to the police.
He knew it had to be custody – and a longer sentence than last time.
He said Stockham had let everyone down, including his parents and Mr Warburton, who had both given him a second chance, but there had been little or no prospect of success – the books were about to be sent to an external accountant.
“There was a lack of sophistication. He was always going to be caught,” he said.
The defendant had expressed remorse and he had written a letter of apology to the victim. “They go back a long way,” he said. It was his addiction to cocaine which was behind his offending, and thanks to assistance from a charity he had been able to kick the habit.
“He has taken a long hard look at himself and he is now drugs free,” he said. “But he knows that he has to face the music today.”