INEGBESE: CROOKED BOSS FACING JAIL FOR PAYING STAFF WAGES TO HIMSELF

A car park firm boss is facing jail for masterminding a £48,000 payroll scam pocketing the ‘wages’ of staff who had left the business.

Bruno Inegbese, 40, operations support manager for car parks firm NSL, waited for 19 employees to leave before paying their wages into four bank accounts opened by his helpers, jurors heard.

The fraud, perpetrated at the firm’s office in Islington, north London, went unnoticed from November 2008 until May 2010.

Inegbese, who started working for NSL in 2006, admitted four counts of fraud by abuse of position at Blackfriars Crown Court.

Jurors cleared him of three further charges of conspiring to convert criminal property after a trial.

He was said to have plotted with partner Sylvie Duguay, 43, 19-year-old daughter Margaret Inegbese, and friend Aforka Ifeanyi, 31, to launder the proceeds.

Ms Duguay, who then worked for the Canadian Embassy, was cleared of involvement in the scam.

Margaret Inegbese and Ifeanyi were both convicted of converting criminal property but acquitted of having conspired together.

Margaret Inegbese, said to have received a total of £27,105, was sentenced to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work while care worker Ifeanyi, who received £10,057, faces sentence later.

Jurors heard while Inegbese was away from work, ex-colleague Richard Hill noticed that he had not received his final payment and decided to raise it with another member of staff.
 
Simon Gledhill, prosecuting, said: ‘Investigations showed his bank details had been altered without written authority being given or there being any record of it.’
 
Further inquiries revealed the full extent of his crimes after a pattern was drawn between the bank details of ex-employees.
 
‘This was happening on a fairly regular basis,’ added Mr Gledhill.
 
‘If two employees were due to be paid on the same day he always made sure that the two different sums of money were paid to different accounts.’

Bruno Inegbese, of Dell Road, Watford, admitted three charges of fraud by abuse of position but was cleared of three conspiracies to convert criminal property between November 27 2008 and May 29 2010.

Margaret Inegbese, of East Drive, Watford, and Ifeanyi, of Mildred Avenue, Watford, were both found guilty of converting criminal property and cleared of conspiring to convert criminal property.

Duguay, also Dell Road, was found not guilty of conspiring to convert criminal property and converting criminal property. 

Bruno Inegbese is due to be sentenced tomorrow (Fri).
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