Cheat from Leeds fleeced companies of thousands and then faked car crash to delay justice
A swindler who fleeced firms of nearly £25,000 then conjured details a fake car crash to avoid standing trial.
Robert Ackroyd even created elaborate fake police and hospital notes to back up his bogus story, Leeds Crown Court heard.
The 32-year-old was jailed this week after he admitted charges of fraud and perverting the course of justice.
Ackroyd, formerly of Lea Farm Road, Hawksworth, had been working for BP Fuel Card Services sales team in 2019 but indescrepencies in his work led to an investigation, prosecutor Benjamin Bell told the court.
It was discovered that between August and December of that year, payments from multiple customer companies were being made into three bank accounts, all controlled by Ackroyd.
He had contacted companies and told them they were over their credit limit and he requested further funds.
He had created multiple email addresses to help cover his tracks. The total amount stolen came to £24,876.
Ackroyd denied wrongdoing but on the day he was due to stand trial - June 10 last year -he contacted Leeds Crown Court saying he could not attend due to being hurt in a road traffic collision.
He said he had been left unconscious after a lorry jackknifed in South Yorkshire and he had been taken to hospital.
He provided a letter from police confirming he had been involved in the crash, but suspicions were raised and following a further investigation, the letter was confirmed to be a fake.
The police said there had been no such crash that day and no records existed of him ever being admitted to hospital.
He was arrested again and interviewed, but refused to comment.
Ackroyd, now of Ferguson Close, London, has two previous convictons for six offences, this includes a previous fraud in which he used cloned cards to buy cars worth nearly £14,000.
He was given a 12-month suspended sentence in 2018.
Mitigating for his latest offences, Paul Canfield said Ackroyd had been hooked on gambling since his late teenage years, building up debts.
He said of the fraud: “It was not to improve his lifestyle, it was to pay off his debt.
“He did not enjoy cars or holidays or anything of that nature.”
Referring to the fake car crash, he added: “Mental health got in the way, he was worried about being sent to prison. He essentially tried to kick the can down the road.”
He said that Ackroyd had been held on remand for 11 weeks but had been working in prison.
Judge Simon Phillips KC said of Ackroyd’s antics: “It was, by any standard, sophisticated.”
He said it required planning and was done when he already on a suspended sentence order at the time.
He jailed him for 44 months in total - 28 months for the fraud, with an additional 16 months for perverting the course of justice.
Giving regard to overall totality, he opted not to activate any of the suspended sentence.