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Defendant pleads guilty to white collar crimes including fraud

Published on 4 Jun 2009 under category: legal

An accountant has pleaded guilty to a number of white collar crimes including fraud, a source reveals.

James Hill, who had worked with sporting social club the Ospreys, admitted at the Cambridge Crown Court to committing eight offences, Cambridge News Online reports.

Among the instances of fraud are the creation of a £7,000 invoice from Citigroup and a letter from an employee at bank Barclays.

According to the news provider, Mr Hill pleaded guilty to a total of four instances of making false instruments through forgery, fraud by abuse of position and fraud by false representation.

Mr Hill will be sentenced on June 29th and prosecutor Laura Mardell claims that the offences were more serious due to the trusted role he held in the charitable organisation.

Dan Hyde, Cubism Law added: "Fraud commited by an employee or other person in a position of trust will be aggravated by the breach of trust and abuse of that trusted position. In this case his role as accountant and that it is a fraud perpetrated on a charity will likely aggravate the offence and be reflected in the sentence."

"A defence lawyer will need to carefully examine charges in frauds such as these to ensure the client is not overcharged. A fraud may be an abuse of position and a false representation but when two or more charges relate to the same act, a prudent defence lawyer will ensure there is not duplicity."

Nearly three quarters of businesses that trade online are daunted by the risk fraud presents their day-to-day operations, recent research by Sage Pay revealed.