UK online punter jailed after stealing two million from employer

Recorder Martin Heslop QC of the Reading Crown Court in the UK sent 49-year-old Julian Kremer to jail for five years after hearing this week that he had abused his position of trust as head of accounting for a Berkshire estate agency to steal GBP 1,981,916, which he spent on internet gambling, luxury hotel accommodation and trying to buy an aristocratic title in Scotland.

Prosecutors led evidence that over a four-and-a-half year period Kremer systematically stole from his employer’s company, plunging it into financial difficulties and triggering the retrenchment of five staff members.

Kremer pleaded guilty to a single count of theft, with Recorder Heslop describing his criminal conduct as “….a professional, sophisticated and at times extremely clever deliberate theft involving fraud, forgery and misrepresentation to those for whom you worked. It is theft on a very significant scale carried out over a substantial period of time.

“This is as bad a case as one could imagine. You were using this money to enjoy a significantly high level of living.”