UK: Carlsberg chief accountant jailed for £366,000 theft

The former chief accountant for Carlsberg in Northampton embezzled £366,000 by stealing the takings from its social club and then transferring large sums of money to cover his tracks, Northampton Chronicle published November 5.

Keith Hall, aged 62, who was also treasurer of Carlsberg's social club, stole £189,000 in bar takings over seven years and a further £177,000 from Carlsberg itself to disguise the thefts by subsidizing the club.

Despite having convictions for theft and false accounting, as the chief accountant he was able to siphon off £366,000 into his bank accounts, of which only a small fraction will ever be recovered.

He was jailed for three years at Northampton Crown Court after pleading guilty to two charges of stealing £366,000 by theft and false accounting.

Recorder Evans said: "Thefts from employers by people of professional standing, who have been placed in positions of considerable trust, must be reflected with substantial prison sentences."

Simon Carr, prosecuting, said Hall was able to get away with stealing so much for so long because he was both responsible for Carlsberg's accounts and those at the Northampton Brewery Sports and Social Club, which the brewery giant set up and subsidised for its employees.
He was able to sign off the thefts "at both ends".

Mr Carr said: "One man had the power to control considerable amounts of money. Hall took that opportunity on board and, over the next seven years, took all the bar takings.

"He took it upon himself to agree to bank the social club's takings from the bar, but the money never made it to the bank.

"Over seven years, he was able to steal £189,777 in this way."

He added: "In order to cover up the fraud, what he then did was to set up a system of transfers from the parent company to the social club to ensure it was financially viable."

While Hall, now of Heanor, in Derbyshire, was stealing from the social club, he was using Carlsberg's accounts to re-imburse the funds he was stealing.

Mr Carr added:

"He set up false accounts to disguise what was going on and £177,000 of cheques were made out and ended up in his account.

"In July 2006, he took redundancy and, one might say, added insult to injury by taking a £30,000 redundancy cheque.

"It was then that the fraud came to light when someone took over the bank books for the social club.

"It was clear the fraud had effectively rendered the social club bankrupt. It was cash-based and Hall was the only person to sign off the accounts at both ends so it has been incredibly difficult to determine the total extent of the fraud."

A spokesman for Carlsberg said the company was unaware of Hall's previous convictions for theft and false accounting when he was taken on in March 1993.

He added: "We are obviously pleased this matter has now come to an end. We will continue to support the social club to the benefit of our employees."

07 November, 2007