Marks and Spencer manager stole GBP 250,000 to fund online gambling
News on 21 Oct 2016
News on 21 Oct 2016
The Cambridge News reports that a 28-year-old manager of a Marks and Spencer store, Martin Trenor, has been jailed for three years for stealing GBP 254,538.11 in shop takings over the course of a year and spending it almost immediately at online gambling websites.
Trenor’s punishment could have been more severe, but he cooperated with investigators when the theft was discovered, and helped his former employers to introduce improved security safeguards.
The Cambridge Crown Court accepted a guilty plea of fraud from Trenor, who admitted that he had abused his position of trust as a manager between March 19, 2015 and March 21, 2016.
Caroline Allison, prosecuting, told Cambridge Crown Court how Trenor had been employed by a company called SSR which runs a number of M&S franchises.
“What he was supposed to do was take the profits from those franchises, complete the necessary paperwork, and take the cash to the bank,” Allison outlined.
“What he was actually doing was completing the paperwork on the correct income but when it came to taking the cash to the bank, he was taking it for himself and putting it into his own bank account.”
The court heard how Trenor was employed as a manager for the Marks and Spencer Simply Food at Cambridge railway station, but was also responsible for two other outlets, Upper Crust and Delice de France.
Trenor’s legal representative relied on a gambling addiction defence to mitigate the serious nature of the crime.
Judge Jonathan Cooper said that Trenor had acted in breach of the trust and the responsibility that had been placed in him by his employer, but that he had admitted guilt and cooperated with the investigation when his conduct was uncovered.
“There was no funding of a lavish lifestyle, there is no sophistication to it, detection was inevitable from the outset.,” Judge Cooper observed, noting that Trenor has since been for addiction counselling and was otherwise a man of positive good character.
