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30
Jul
Man jailed after embezzling £300,000 from Harrogate care company
A Porsche-driving former finance boss at a care company embezzled the firm out of more than £300,000 so he could indulge his car-buying “addiction”.
Nicholas Southwood, 68, who worked at Harrogate-based Northern Life Care Ltd during the five-year fraud spree, fiddled the company’s financial systems to pay himself “vast” amounts of money, York Crown Court heard.
Southwood, who admitted that he had a “little dark side”, admitted fraud and appeared for sentence yesterday (July 29).
Prosecutor Calum McNicholas said that as finance lead manager for the care firm, which supports adults with physical disabilities, mental-health problems and autism, Southwood had access to all the firm’s bank accounts and had a trusted role in its general financial affairs.
He was also entrusted to make payments “both within the organisation and without” during the offences between November 2018 and January 2024.
Mr McNicholas said:
Following the (company’s) January 2024 organisational review, the payroll managerial team often noticed a discrepancy in the system.
The defendant added his own details to the hourly-pay system and given his role, that seemed at odds at the organisation and triggered a further review of the accounts. It uncovered numerous payments ranging from £10,000 to £18,000 on a pretty regular basis from October 2021 to January 2024.
The company reported Southwood to police who conducted their own investigation which revealed there had been further suspicious payments - thought to be 19 transfers in total - dating back to 2018. The total amount that Southwood paid to himself over the five-year period was £301,427.
Southwood, of the Red House Estate, Moor Monkton, near Harrogate, used three distinct methods to defraud the care company, namely entering his own details into the hourly-pay account and doing the same with the company account for payments for external services. He used the same method with an account the company used for internal “repairs and replacements”.
“There were multiple methods of sending himself funds from the organisation using multiple (company) accounts,” said Mr McNicholas.
Police attended Southwood’s home in August last year as the disgraced former finance boss turned up in a gleaming Porsche. He was arrested and taken into custody where he immediately owned up to the outrageous ruse.
During quizzing by officers, he admitted he had paid himself a “significant amount of money but didn’t know precisely how much”.
Mr McNicholas said:
He said he had a little ‘little dark side to his character’ and that once he had done it, he knew he could do it again.
He said he wanted to maintain a lifestyle he could not legitimately maintain and that he had an addiction to buying vehicles.
“He said the (fraudulent) payments were initially to get his head above water but ultimately he then enjoyed the secure feeling that that provided, and enjoyed ‘having a good lifestyle’.
Southwood, a married father, told officers he had been diagnosed with cancer in January 2023, about a year before the dodgy payments came to an end.
Two months after his arrest and sacking by the company, the most “curious” aspect of this unedifying case occurred when Southwood, for reasons unknown, tried to get into the company accounts again, albeit unsuccessfully.
“It’s clear that had he been able to access that account, it wouldn’t have allowed him to make payments, but it’s suggested it would have allowed him to delete data from the system,” said Mr McNicholas.
When Southwood was quizzed about trying to access the company’s account and financial systems in a second police interview, he admitted that he had done so.
“His explanation was that he was simply trying to ensure that his own account had been revoked,” added the prosecuting barrister.
He said that Southwood had a previous conviction from March 2000 for four offences of benefit fraud.
‘Struggling financially’
His solicitor advocate Kevin Blount said that Southwood was “struggling financially” at the time he defrauded the care company.
Mr Blount said:
He saw an opportunity and sadly took that opportunity to try and sort out the financial position.
Having done it once, he accepts he’s continued to do it to buy cars and the like.
He said that Southwood was “obviously” going to get caught out because he kept “changing the figures” and paid “random” amounts into his account from the company’s payroll.
Judge Simon Hickey told Southwood:
You were the trusted business and financial lead manager, having access to all those accounts for Northern Life Care Ltd.
There were 19 separate incidents where you gave yourself vast amounts of money, the smallest being £10,000, sometimes up to £18,000.
Although Southwood had led an otherwise “industrious” life and had family commitments, Mr Hickey said the offence was so serious that an immediate jail sentence must follow.
Southwood was jailed for two years and eight months. Under new sentencing laws, he is likely to serve less than half of that behind bars due to prison overcrowding.
The judge set in train confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act which will be heard later this year and will determine how much Southwood repays to the public purse.
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