Wife sobs as court hears financial controller with hand in the till had been at it before
A financial controller who stole almost £15,000 from his employers while earning £60,000 a year has been jailed for 14 months.
Mital Shah, 40, pocketed the cash from The Future Laboratory over a seven month period while filling in for a woman on maternity leave.
Shah was jailed for six months in 2008 for stealing from another former employer and is now set for a second spell behind bars.
He initially tried to claim that the company’s CEO had authorised the payments to him but pleaded guilty when first appearing in court, Southwark Crown Court heard today (weds).
Shah’s wife wept in the public gallery as her husband was jailed and he stood in shock before being taken to the cells.
The judge Mr Recorder Jeremy Benson QC, sentencing Shah, said: ‘It seems to me that in this case there is high culpability for two reasons.
‘First of all it was an abuse of your position as financial controller that enabled you to steal this money.
‘Secondly the fraudulent activity was conducted over a period of some seven months.’
The court heard that Shah has already repaid all the money but this was not enough to save him from time behind bars.
Shah pocketed the money in 12 transactions between May and November 2014 in amounts ranging from £50 to £6,000 and totalling £14,062.32.
Beverley Akinbile, prosecuting, said: ‘The human resources manager noticed that there were some difficulties with some figures he had produced.’
These irregularities were followed up when the company’s regular financial controller came back from maternity leave.
‘When she returned she noticed that there was in fact something awry with the figures and a number of payments had been made to the defendant’s own account between May and November.’
Enquiries were made and Shah said he had been given the authority to make those payments by the company’s CEO in relation to holiday pay.
He also said that some of the pay related to work he had done with an Australian company as part of his role with The Future Laboratory.
But the CEO had never said Shah would be paid separately for this work.
Despite having already pleaded guilty Shah tried to argue that he did not believe he was acting dishonestly but this claim was rejected by the judge.
In May 2008 Shah was jailed at Reading Crown Court for sixth months for stealing from his then employers.
Following this previous conviction he had to pay back £6,275.92 in compensation as part of a confiscation order.
Shah, of Granville Road, Uxbridge, was jailed for 14 months for one count of fraud by abuse of position.
He will not have to pay compensation having already repaid the money.
ends
