A youth club worker who stole pnds stlg 15,000 to

A youth club worker who stole pnds stlg 15,000 to fund a luxury lifestyle of top hotels and expensive nighclubs walked free from court today.

(THURS).

Peter Wilkinson, 24, went on a huge spending spree
and splashed out for friends to join his new life away from ‘common people.

‘

Southwark Crown Court heard how an accomplice forged a letter to a Fleet Street bank requesting for the money to be transfered to Wilkinson’s Abbey National account.

Wilkinson, who worked as a volunteer for the Four Feathers Youth Club in Camden, withdrew the money and blew it within days, the court was told.

Defending him James Kirby said: ‘He was put in a moral maze and made a mistake.

‘Tentatively at first he withdrew a few hundred pounds and then a few more hundred pounds.

‘Then he thought: ”Good heavens.

I am getting away
with this.

”

‘He then made a very stupid decision and embarked on a serious spending spree.

‘He spent the money on cars, computers, foreign holidays, luxury hotels and expensive night clubs.

‘He booked whole tables and brought groups of friends and hangers-on.

‘Having spent so much money he did not have to queue with the common people and often spent up to pnds stlg 600 a night.

‘He now realises how stupid he was to be seduced by living the high life for a short period of time with money that was not his – that he had stolen.

‘

Passing a 180-hour community punishment order, Judge Rodney McKinnon said: ‘You said this money came into your account and you thought it was a mistake by the bank.

‘It is significant that the money was directed from someone’s account as a result of a forged letter.

‘There was clearly a plan for the transfer of that money to your account.

‘It is a worrying feature that there was an underlying plan behind this removal of money and it is something that is happening more and more regularly.

‘Banks will have to improve their security systems and more sophisticated measures will have to be taken.

‘

Wilkinson, of (23) Dodley House, North Wharf Road, Paddington, west London, pleaded guilty to two charges of theft on December 10 2001.

He was ordered to pay pnds stlg 1,000 compensation to the Abbey National.

ends