Leeds Pack and Send international package delivery firm worker carried out fraud worth almost £10,000

Jordan Richards defrauded Pack and Send out of a total of £9,446 over a three-month period to fund his gambling habit.

Leeds Crown Court heard Richards carried out the deception while working at the company's base on Kirkstall Road between March and May of 2018.

Danielle Gilmour, prosecuting, said the offending came to light when Richards left the company in June of that year.

An investigation was launched after a manager was asked to investigate high-value refunds which had been given to customers.

It was initially thought that there was a fault with the firm's card payment machine.

One invoice showed that a sum of £484 had been refunded to a customer based in Norway.

Further enquiries revealed multiple transactions to the same bank account.

Customers' bank account numbers were checked and did not match the account that refunds had purportedly been sent to.

Richards was identified as a suspect as he had left the company eight days after the final fraudulent transaction on May 31, 2018.

Money was found to have been diverted into Richards' account on 39 occasions.

He was arrested but refused to comment when interviewed by police.

Richards, 26, of Sutton Row, Killingbeck, Leeds, pleaded to fraud.

Glenn Parsons, mitigating, said Richards had not been in trouble in the two years since the offending.

Mr Parsons said Richards committed the offences at a time when he had a gambling habit which he had now managed to control.

The barrister said Richards is now in a relationship and his partner was due to give birth.

The defendant was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

Judge Neil Clark said: "To send you to prison now would be a wholly retrograde step."