Manager jailed for his role in 100k theft from DHL depot

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TWO employees at a logistics giant were involved in the theft of £100,000 worth of old meters and other scrap from British Gas – with the money going on the unauthorised lavish entertainment of clients, a court heard.

The DHL depot's general manager Andrew Gould and driver Peter Ashby initially pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to the theft.

But Gould, 47, of Claymills Road, Stretton, and Ashby, 52, from Coventry, changed their pleas to guilty on the day of their trial. Gould was jailed for 18 months and Ashby for nine months.

Prosecutor Andrew Wilkins said the offence related to activities between January 2012 and November 2013 at British Gas's central distribution centre in Coventry, which is run by DHL.

Gould worked for DHL as general manager of the centre, from where meters and other equipment was distributed – but also to where old meters and other scrap items were returned. Certain contractors had been approved for receiving the scrap items, for which they would pay British Gas.

He said: "But what was going on here was that items were being taken elsewhere and not going through British Gas's books."

As a result of a tip-off, British Gas began investigating the possible theft of old meters and placed trackers on some of its lorries, as well as checking CCTV footage.

This led them to a scrap metal firm, only for investigators to find that the items had been sold to them in good faith by Ashby.

At first Ashby, after providing his personal details, was paid in cash – until regulations changed last year, when he began to receive the payments by cheque, with payments later being made directly to a Mastercard account in his name.

Altogether he was paid £10,628 in cash, a further £32,956 in cheques and a total of £56,422 in transfers to the card account.

When the two men were arrested, Ashby said he had been asked by Gould to take the items to the scrap yard, for which he was paid £50 a time. He said he passed the payments he received to Gould, adding that he knew what he was doing was wrong but that he was being told to do it by his boss.

Gould agreed he had asked Ashby to take the scrap to the yard, and used the money to entertain people.

But he said he was aware of six pallets of meters being sold, and did not realise the full extent of what was going on. Ashby's plea was also entered on the basis that there was a culture of scrap being sold to fund social events.

Recorder Tim Green told them: "There are a number of aggravating features to this offence, not least the persistence of it. You, Andrew Gould, possessed a high degree of trust.

"And you, Peter Ashby, less so. Nevertheless, this scrap belonged to British Gas and was stolen by you.

"This was organised in too deliberate a fashion and over too long a period of time."