Assets seized from fraudulent online gambler

Our readers may recall the case last year of Jonathan Revill, a GBP 55,000-a-year IT manager for the GDF SUEZ energy company in Leeds, England who defrauded his company of almost GBP19 million through false orders of IT supplies, which he then sold at a discount over the internet to make a personal profit of GBP 5.6 million.

After admitting his crimes and revealing that much of his illegal fortune had been blown on internet gambling sites, Revill was sent to jail for seven years.

This week he briefly left his cell to appear again in the Leeds Crown Court to face a Proceeds of Crime confiscation hearing, where prosecutor Mehran Nassiri revealed that only GBP 608,909 of Revill’s assets remained, mainly associated with his GBP 515,000 home and GBP 21,000 in equity investments.

Judge Christopher Batty ordered Revill to pay over the sum within six months or face a further prison sentence of up to four years, The Yorkshire Post reports.

The newspaper recalls that at one point Revill paid cash for his home and would gamble up to GBP 300,000 via the internet on a single sporting fixture. He was so addicted to gambling that even after his arrest, Revill accessed more than GBP 20,000 from his betting account and lost it all in one evening.

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