A finance director helped divert over £250,000 of company funds to be spent on prostitutes, overseas holidays and hotel rooms.
Darren Parker, 43, splurged on overseas holidays, home improvements and online shopping at the expense of his employer Storetec Engineering Ltd, based in Clervo. When he was caught, he claimed that he was being coerced by call-girls who were making increasingly demanding payments.
He is now starting a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to three counts of fraud.
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Preston Crown Court heard Parker, who is married, had been employed by the company as a financial controller on a team of seven since 2014. He was promoted as the Financial Director in 2018 following the restructuring of the company. The court heard that he had been trusted with overall control of the company’s coffers, but unbeknownst to his employers he had set himself up as a ‘superuser’ on the online banking system.
In 2019, a colleague, Sophie Thompson, observed that Parker was not giving her full instructions to carry out her duties and said things were being taken care of when they were not. When the lockdown took place in March 2020, Parker started working from home. However six months after the arrangement, Parker’s deception was discovered while he was on leave.
Ms Thompson noticed that Thames Water Limited’s invoices had not been paid, and when she began to investigate this, she found that Parker had been paid, which was offset by older invoices. He noticed that all the payments were made early in the morning, before starting work for the day.
Multiple payments were made to Argos, Amazon and River Island, and company credit cards were registered in Parker’s personal online accounts with the retailers. Ms Thompson also noticed that Parker was using petty cash.
On 24 August 2020, Parker was called into a meeting with company director Matt Dickinson, and he admitted that he had been taking money from the business – although he could not say how much. The investigation revealed £255,304. 84P of fraudulent transaction attributable to Parker.
When questioned, Parker stated that he was on a low level and found himself using chat lines, which led him into the company of prostitutes. He claimed that he did not want sex, but regularly paid for hotel rooms for women, claiming that he himself did not stay in them on every occasion.
Parker said the demands of women have increased and they have found themselves spending more and more. He claimed that the only expense he took on himself was the cost of a builder to make improvements to the house.
In sentencing, Recorder Carwyn Cox said: “I accept this has been a devastating fall for you. You left school at 16 and have worked in finance all your life. You have been married for nine years and Your kids are all grown up.
“You live a fairly modest life and you no longer work in finance.” The judge said he accepted that Parker was suffering from mental health and marital issues.
However he added: “You were not coerced, intimidated or coerced into making these transactions. When you ran out of funds, you turned to the company of prostitutes, and you continued that lifestyle.
“You had a choice to go to the police or your partners. You chose not to. You used the money to fund the lifestyle. You wanted to be liked and felt the need to help people.”
The court heard that Parker has since reconciled with his wife.
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