A fraudster lurked at Shell garages in Aberdeen and Tayside offering to let people fill up their cars – but charged the transactions to his company’s fuel card and pocketed the cash.
Graham Hare’s scheme seemed to hit the buffers when his employer, Bureau Veritas, spotted the unusual payments and challenged him about it.
But the duplicitous 47-year-old managed to throw them off the scent by making up a story claiming that his card must have been cloned.
However, stupidly, when he was issued with a new one, Hare continued to do exactly the same thing – on dozens more occasions.
‘Must have been cloned’
Fiscal depute Georgia Laird told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the offence was committed between December 31 2019 and February 5 2021, resulting in Hare obtaining fuel and cash to the value of £3,208.17.
She explained that Hare, as part of his job as an inspector with offshore firm Bureau Veritas, was issued a company fuel card.
He was only allowed to use it on authorised cars and couldn’t fill up any other vehicles, including those of friends and family.
On January 5 2021, Hare’s boss was made aware of concerns over “unusual” transaction on his fuel card.
When challenged, Hare – who had worked for the company for seven years – denied knowledge of the suspicious charges and claimed his card “must have been cloned”.
He was told to report the matter to the police – but he didn’t.
His fuel card was cancelled and, just over a week later, Hare was issued with a new one.
Ms Laird told the court: “On February 5 2021, the accused’s manager received another email stating there had been further activity on the accused’s new fuel card account.”
‘It might be worth your while putting something aside’
An internal investigation was carried out, which revealed a large number of transactions at garages in the Aberdeen area, often with multiple transactions on the same day.
Contact was then made with the manager of one of the Shell garages, who stated she was aware of Hare approaching people and offering to fuel their vehicles for cash.
When made aware of the allegations, Hare admitted he had used the card to refuel vehicles for his family and friends, but denied doing the same for anyone else.
He again insisted it “must have been cloned”.
On April 5 2021 Hare was sacked and the matter was passed on to the police.
A list of transactions made showed 31 of them were made at the Shell Cocket Hat petrol station on North Anderson Drive.
Court documents also list the below garages as locations for the offence:
- Shell Redmoss Service Station, Wellington Circle
- Shell Wellington Service Station, Wellington Road
- Shell Propeller Service Station, Inverurie Road
- Northern Lights Service, Bridge of Don
- EG Don Service Station, Aberdeen
- Gulf Strathbogie Service Station, Huntly
- EG Caird Park Service Station, Dundee
- Inchmichael Garage, Perth
- Greenwellystop Service Station, Stirling
- Shell Polkemmet Service Station, Bathgate
- Abington Service Station, South Lanarkshire
- EG Bothwell Service Station, Bothwell
Hare, of Waulkmill Road, Aberdeen, pled guilty to forming a fraudulent scheme.
Sheriff Craig Findlater deferred sentence for the Crown to establish which organisation was left out of pocket by the fraud, with a view to making a compensation order.
He told Hare: “At the risk of sounding too cheeky, it might be worth your while putting something aside.”
Defence agent Neil McRobert reserved mitigation for the next hearing.
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