Leeds Ibis hotel manager jailed for stealing £48,000 from a safe to fund his addiction to gambling

Karl Dunbar abused his trusted position to steal cash on at least 135 occasions over a four-month period before finally being caught.

Dunbar carried out the offending between June and October 2017 when he was the operational manager at the hotel in Leeds city centre.

Leeds Crown Court heard Dunbar removed envelopes full of cash from a safe on the premises.

Dunbar managed to obtain a key to the safe which he kept hidden and used it to get to large sums of cash.

The 38-year-old continued to offend during an investigation after staff became aware that money was going missing.

Tom Storey, prosecuting, said Dunbar's actions placed his colleagues under suspicion.

Dunbar was arrested after the envelopes were discovered at his home.

The prosecutor said the total amount of cash initially discovered missing was £36,449.

Accountants then discovered a further sum of more than £11,000 was unaccounted for.

The total value of Dunbar's offending was £48,202.

The defendant continued to deny any wrongdoing and blamed the disappearance of the cash on a colleague.

An investigation of his finances revealed that just under £25,000 had gone from his bank account to William Hill bookmakers to gamble online.

Dunbar, of Woodeson Lea, Rodley, Leeds, pleaded guilty to theft.

A was the subject of a suspended sentence at the time of the deception for a further dishonesty offence.

Andrew Stranex, mitigating, said: "The very sad background to this is the defendant suffered with a crippling addiction to gambling.for some considerable period of time.

"He acknowledges being in the grip of it for 15 years prior to this conviction."

Mr Stranex said Dunbar suffered a breakdown after being arrested but had managed to get help to control his addiction.

Dunbar was jailed for 30 months.

Judge Andrew Stubbs QC said: "Your blameworthiness was high because of your trusted position and what must have been a significant level of planning and sophistication in the way you put this in to operation."