UK Debt Collector Sentenced in $3.65 million Collection Scandal

A former licensee debt collector at brewery Scottish & Newcastle has been jailed for four and a half years after admitting his role in a £1.9m ($3.65 million) scandal.

Graham Sykes, of Beacon Heights, Upholland, Lancashire, appeared in Manchester Crown Court last week where he pleaded guilty to two counts of theft totalling £630,000 ($1.2 million).

Much of the money is believed to have been collected from licensees.

A guilty plea to false accounting totalling a further £1.2m was taken into consideration and he was ordered to pay back £1,664,367 ($3,196,536) within 12 months or face a further seven-year consecutive jail sentence.

The court heard that when police searched Mr Sykes? home they found over £230,000 ($442,000) in cash, hidden in suitcases, drawers and even a black bin bag under the sink.

Mr Sykes? job had involved reducing debts owed to the company by licensees for loans and the supply of beverages in the North. However, money he received from debtors was often applied to other completely separate debt accounts or not paid in at all. When interviewed by police he admitted he had been stealing from his employer for five to six years.

Detective Superintendent Terry Burke, head of financial investigation for the National Crime Squad, said: ?Graham Sykes abused the trust of his employers, and those he collected debts from, placed in him, and pocketed the money for purely selfish reasons ? to line his own pocket.?