A former consultant for insurance giant
Aviva wept in the dock as he was sentenced to a 12-month prison sentence, which has been suspended for two years.
Michael Philip Pearse, 49, managed to avoid jail despite stealing £13,084 from the insurance giant over a period of eight years.
York Crown Court heard how Pearse had duplicated his expenses for travel, car parking and hotels from 2008 to the beginning of this year with an internal investigation by the insurer revealing a total of 91 false claims worth £4,160.
However, that was just scratching the surface of the crime. When the company looked deeper at the receipts filed by the consultant, it discovered a further 353 duplicate claims stretching back over a period of six years and totalling £8,923.
As a result, Pearse, from Letchworth Garden City, pleaded guilty to false accounting and repaid all the money after resigning from the company and selling his home.
According to a report by
The York Press, Robert Galley of the prosecution said: “There was a disciplinary hearing from February of this year and he said the claims were genuine mistakes.
“When he was confronted with the scale of the offending he admitted them, and expressed remorse and said he would re-pay.”
Pearse is now said to suffer from anxiety and depression and is estranged from his partner, although he has been able to secure another job.
The court heard he now suffers from depression and anxiety as a result, and is estranged from his partner.
The
York Press report quotes Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC, as saying: “You had a high position of responsibility within the Aviva organisation.
“You were trusted by the company to the extent where you were able to make, and did make, perfectly legitimate but substantial claims for expenses. You stole just over £13,000 of expenses by duplicating amounts that you were legitimately entitled to.
“Had there not been a routine check of your expenses goodness knows how long this would have continued for.”
Pearse was ordered to do 180 hours of unpaid work and to pay £150 prosecution costs.
