2:00pm Saturday 2nd May 2009
By Alison Sanders
A RISCA man was jailed for nine months after stealing £40,000 from his employer to build a house in Tunisia.
William O’Brien, 52, of Ebbw Street, pleaded guilty to stealing the money from Blaenavon Builders’ Merchants where he worked as a manager.
He also pleaded guilty to nine other counts including theft, false accounting and fraud involving much smaller amounts of money.
Newport Crown Court heard yesterday how O’Brien was employed by Paul Jones who runs a number of companies and had known O’Brien previously.
Gareth James, prosecuting, told the court how Mr Jones had left O’Brien to look after the builders merchants.
He said Mr Jones could not understand how the company was making a large number of sales but that the profit margins were small and pressed O’Brien for an explanation on a number of occasions.
Mr James said Mr Jones decided to employ other workers to assist O’Brien because he thought O’Brien could not cope.
It was then that Mr Jones realised something serious had been going on.
The court heard how O’Brien had manipulated invoices to commit the theft.
The court heard how O'Brien used the majority of the money to finance the building of a house in Tunisia.
A statement from Mr Jones described how the company started to make some monthly profit after O’Brien left but then things slowed down.
The company closed on March 31 and Mr Jones now has a £50,000 loan to pay off which had covered his overdraft.
The statement also said Mr Jones would have to lay six people off at the company and can only reemploy two of these.
Mr Jones said that had O’Brien not stolen the money, he would have been able to keep the business running for another two years.
Leighton Hughes, defending, said O’Brien is a sick man who is losing his sight, is a chronic asthmatic and is virtually unable to walk.
He said: “Until the past few years he was industrious and hardworking.”
The recorder of Cardiff, Nicholas Cooke QC, said O’Brien had left Mr Jones with a business whose viability was at risk and with job losses at a time when things are already difficult.
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