Travel consultant swindled £25,000 in ticket refunds scam

Published on Thursday 5 November 2009 08:52

A TRAVEL consultant swindled more than £25,000 from National Express while working at Waverley Station because he was depressed, a court heard.

Kevin Brown, 43, pocketed the money over a period of a year by refunding imaginary rail journeys and keeping the cash for himself.

Brown, who had been employed by the company for 16 years, was caught when an auditor became suspicious because a large number of travel tickets sold at the station were immediately refunded.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday Brown avoided a jail sentence.

Sheriff Frank Crowe instead ordered him to carry out 180 hours of community service.

Sentencing him, Sheriff Crowe said: "This is a very serious charge that you faced.

"It was a considerable amount of public money and the traditional response of the courts when there has been a breach of trust is to consider a prison sentence.

"I do have to send out a message to others that a breach of trust like this is not acceptable at all."

But the sheriff said there was an alternative to custody because Brown was a first offender, previously had a good work record and would pay back the cash.

He also said he took into account that Brown was depressed at the time of the offence.

Defence agent Massimo D'Alvito told Edinburgh Sheriff Court that Brown had already paid back 2,500 of the money he embezzled and was working two jobs six days a week with the aim of paying back the rest.

Mr D'Alvito added: "He has a good employment record and is at a low risk of reoffending."

Brown, of Pentland Road, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, previously admitted embezzling 25,745.70 while working as a travel consultant at National Express at Waverley Railway Station.

He carried out the offence between 29 September, 2007, and 30 September last year.

The court heard Brown was caught when an auditor became suspicious.

In some cases the refunds were for as much as 400.

At an earlier hearing, fiscal depute John Kirk said that the auditor came across a high number of tickets being sold and then immediately refunded in one month.

The norm for this was usually one or two per month. The amounts of some of the refunds were also unusual.

Mr Kirk added the audit revealed more than 25,000 was missing and when Brown was questioned he admitted carrying out the fraudulent transactions.