A scheming sales manager who stole nearly £75,000 from his employers has been jailed for 12 months.
Jonathan Green was suffering from financial difficulties when he hatched a plan to solve his problems by embezzling from Graham Builders Merchants in Dundee.
The decision to jail him shocked the dad of two, whose solicitor had hoped the court would consider a heavy fine.
However, Sheriff Lorna Drummond said custody was inevitable given the sum of money and gross breach of trust.
Over the course of a year, Green persuaded two of the firm’s clients to deposit payments into a new bank account – actually his own.
Around two thirds of the cash eventually made its way to his employers, while he kept around £23,000 for himself.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard the 45-year-old had persuaded the firms that the change was to “help his employer meet targets”, claiming they would receive a thank-you from the company for their help.
The first client so duped paid £7,000 into the account and was therefore understandably surprised to receive a second invoice from Graham Builders Merchants seeking more money.
Unaware that he was already on the verge of being found out, Green targeted a second company, persuading them to deposit a little over £65,000 into the account.
Over time, inconsistencies in his paperwork were noticed by colleagues who launched an investigation.
Green turned up for a meeting with a handwritten apology and offered to repay the sum through a combination of savings and deductions from his pension fund.
The accused, of Bractullo Gardens in Letham, Angus, subsequently admitted embezzling £73,386.38 from Graham Builders Merchants in Faraday Street, Dundee, on dates between August 1 2011 and July 27 2012.
Green’s solicitor said that prior to the offence and since that time his client had been “of impeccable character”.
“I would be very surprised if was ever to appear before a court again,” he said. “This was very much a one-off.”
The solicitor revealed that his client, originally from Huddersfield, had been struggling ever since he moved north for work, leaving his wife and family behind in Yorkshire.
Additional financial pressures had come about through the birth of two children.
The solicitor said Green had “concocted the scheme” to help solve some of the financial issues.
Green, he said, had been briefly out of work following the offence but had since secured a senior and responsible role as a salesman with another firm and was “well thought of”.
Sheriff Drummond said she accepted what was said in his defence but told the clearly shaken Green: “This is a very serious matter. You embezzled over £73,000 from your employer while in a position of trust.
“You breached that trust over a very significant period. The sentence I impose must punish you for this and it must also deter others.
“Custody is inevitable, even exercising as much leniency as I can.”
Graham Builders Merchants have declined to comment.
