Online gambling finance manager jailed

Samantha Grindrod, a 27-year-old finance manager for a firm in Bolton, UK, has been jailed for 16 months for misappropriating company funds which were subsequently spent on internet gambling and alcohol, the Manchester Evening News reports.
Grindrod pleaded guilty to diverting some GBP 117 000 from the account of GB Car Loans where she worked to her own bank account over a 10 month period. It was claimed that the theft had a huge impact on the Bolton firm and bosses had to take pay cuts and take out loans to safeguard the business.
In mitigation, the Bolton Crown Court was told that Grindrod “went off the rails” after her uncle died following a vicious assault.
Judge Timothy Clayson said: “The company had placed considerable trust in you. Your dishonesty resulted in a loss to the company of around GBP117 000. That is a very large amount of money.
“Your actions had a harmful effect on the well-being of the company. It is likely there will be long term effects to the business concerning credit and business partners.”
Grindrod earned around GBP25 000 a year and had worked for the car leasing business for five years until her crimes were uncovered whilst she was absent on holiday last year.  One of the firm’s directors noticed the company had made some duplicate payments to business partners.
He then found that some payments had been made to the same bank account that Grindrod had her salary paid into, and a fuller enquiry showed that she had been stealing cash since September 2009, the court was told.
In police interviews, she admitted the theft and said she had developed an addiction to gambling through online slot machines.