North East finance team supervisor fleeced firm out of £375,000 over 11 years and spent it all

William Sharp, 72, of Houghton-le-Spring, has been jailed after his 11-year fraud was discovered following his retirement

A crooked finance team supervisor who fiddled invoices pocketed more than £375,000 which he splashed out on himself and his family. William Sharp worked his way up to a trusted position in the company, which he abused over and over again in a fraud spanning 11 years.

A court heard Sharp had worked in the finance team at Connor Solutions, based in Houghton-le-Spring, since 2011. After getting promoted to account supervisor, he had increased responsibilities which meant he was allowed to process invoices. The company processed up to 2,000 invoices a month, the court heard.

He retired in 2023 on a salary of £32,000 but after he left the company, there was an internal investigation after a discrepancy was noticed by a supplier. The probe revealed a series of fraudulent invoices between September 2012 and August 2023.

Newcastle Crown Court heard there had been 95 fraudulent payments totalling £375,667. They had been created by Sharp using his work username.

It was also found that when another employee had been lined up to replace Sharp ahead of him retiring, he would wait until that person was on annual leave to make fraudulent payments to an account for which he was a card holder.

Rachel Butt, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was spoken to and confirmed he had spent all the money supplementing his income, taking his family on luxury holidays, providing money to his sister when her house was in negative equity and paying off his debts of £26,000.”

Sharp, 72, of Ellesmere Close, Houghton-le-Spring, pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation between 2012 and 2023 and was jailed for two and a half years. He also faces Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings.

Judge Carolyn Scott told him: “It was an egregious breach of trust, in my judgement, over a significant period of time. There can be no dispute that you breached your position and it was committed over a sustained period of time.

“It is apparent, notwithstanding the success of the business, your offending would have impacted the company. There was a time when the company had to cut costs and make people redundant. I’ve no doubt you stealing cash from them would have contributed to that.

“There were clearly a range of factors which led to the company having to take difficult decisions but there was at the very least some impact.

“Your offending was only discovered by mistake after you had retired. If it had not been discovered by another employee I’m confident this is something you would have kept to yourself.

“I do have sympathy for your family and how they will be affected but the sentence I have to pass today is something you’ve brought on yourself and your family. In the circumstances, a sentence of that length is simply unavoidable.”

Jessica Slaughter, defending, said: “The defendant is of previous good character and he has worked throughout his life. He can’t understand how he succumbed to temptation and he is incredibly remorseful about that.”

Miss Slaughter said Sharp and his wife pay a mortgage on their £75,000 flat using their pensions and said his imprisonment would severely impact his wife. She told the court: “She would lose her home, she would lose her husband and also her carer.”