Fuel fraud lands man

Published on 14th June 2007 in News

A Hull man who ripped off a Goole vehicle company by stealing a set of trade plates and charging more than £1,000 of personal petrol costs to the company appeared before magistrates this week.

Andrew Campbell (33), pleaded guilty, both to stealing a pair of trade plates from Peep-Peep Automotive in Goole and using a fuel card belonging to the company to spend £1,018 on petrol, when he appeared in Goole Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

Prosecuting, Mrs Jayne Wilson told the court that an agency employed Mr Campbell to work at Peep-Peep Automotive in January this year. On his appointment with the car and vehicle delivery company he was handed a pair of trade plates and a fuel card, which was intended to be used to fill company vehicles with petrol during working hours only.

Mr Campbell stopped working at the company later that month when he failed to show up for work. A few weeks later an employee dealing with finances found that the fuel card had been used fraudulently. Some 28 transactions had been made with the card.

In March, Mr Campbell was arrested in Hull and admitted using the card to buy fuel but denied stealing the card and trade plates. The court heard that Mr Campbell would have continued the fraud had he not been caught, and still had the two trade plates when he was arrested.

Defending, Miss Amanda Holmes told the court that Mr Campbell had worked at the company for a number of weeks and despite failing to show for work had parted on good terms with Peep-Peep Automotive.

Miss Holmes said that the trade plates and fuel card had been left in Mr Campbell's bag by mistake and that when he "stumbled across" them, he "took the opportunity that was available to him" as he was a single parent on state benefits.

Mr Campbell was said to have used the free petrol to visit his family and friends in Scotland. He was anxious for the matter to be resolved.

Magistrates took into consideration the fact that Mr Campbell was a single-parent family and ruled that he should complete an 80-hour unpaid work community order in lieu of compensation. He was also ordered to pay £60 towards court costs.