CHAPMAN: EX-KPMG DIRECTOR ON TRIAL FOR £45,000 FRAUD

A KPMG director who falsely claimed nearly £45,000 in expenses blamed his own ‘incompetence’, a court heard today (TUES).

Management consultant Brian Chapman, 55, was sacked from his £104,000 a year job after bosses discovered the five-year fraud in 2012.

He allegedly double-claimed or even triple-claimed for international flights, luxury hotels and mobile phone bills.

Chapman, who lived with his wife in Scotland but worked in London, admitted he had made false claims during his police interview in December 2012.

He said: ‘My problem is I was not particularly diligent in keeping up with expenses.

‘I wasn’t an aspect of the job I particularly enjoyed so I did have a situation where I had to play catch-up.’

Chapman added: ‘I cannot refute the face double claims were paid. I can refute the allegation that I did it dishonestly.

‘It doesn’t sit well with me that it was due to incompetence, but really it was.

‘At no point did I sit down and think, you know I’m going to claim for something I have already claimed.’

Jurors heard how in December 2011 Chapman paid for a five-day stay at a Hilton hotel on his corporate credit card and later the same day claimed the bill as an ‘out-of-pocket expense’.

This meant that KPMG paid the same amount twice over, the court heard.

Chapman told the court: ‘At the time I was just trying to get my head above this in terms of admin.’

Asked what he had spent the money on, he told officers: ‘It was just submerged into my regular activities. It has just gone into the confusion of my general life.

‘I can accept I have been spending money which I was not entitled to, there is no getting away from that. Admin has never been my strong suit.

‘All I am saying is I wasn’t on top of the admin. I have not deliberately set out to be dishonest.’

Chapman was recruited to KPMG as a manager in July 1997 because of his expertise in investment performance, the court heard.

He was promoted to director in 2005 and was involved in co-ordinating services in the UK, China, South Korea, Latin America and Europe, jurors were told.

Chapman, of (193) Binniehill Road, Cumbernauld, Glasgow, denies a single count of fraud totaling £44,983 between 2007 and 2012.

The trial continues.

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