8:37 am, September 14, 2026
A former car dealer accountant who previously served time behind bars for stealing £2.5m from Evans Halshaw has been jailed again after defrauding Lookers out of more than £188,000.
Allan Curry, 33, created fraudulent supplier invoices and arranged payments into his own bank account while working as an assistant accountant at Lookers between December 2022 and May 2023.
The Sunderland Echo reports that in that period he created eight fraudulent supplier invoices, resulting in £188,180.51 being illegally transferred into his Cashplus bank account.
Lookers were also able block other attempted transactions into the account, which would have totalled a further £111,956.
The fraudster was able to hide his criminal past from his employers by forging a clean DBS check while he was out on licence before using fake email addresses to carry out his latest scam.
His offending only came to light after an accountant who had worked with him at Evans Halshaw reported him to Lookers after learning he was working there.
The 33-year-old has now appeared at Newcastle Crown Court, where he admitted fraud by abuse of position and was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison.
Recorder Nathan Moxon said Curry had been stealing ‘out of greed’.
The judge also rejected Curry’s explanation that he struggled to live on a normal wage, telling him: ‘People have to survive on a normal wage.’
Curry was previously jailed for six years in 2017 after stealing £2.5m from Evans Halshaw, where he used company money to fund property and vehicle purchases.
During that offending he bought four houses as well as Mercedes, BMW and Range Rover cars.
While employed by Lookers, Curry bought another BMW worth around £60,000.
His barrister Jamie Adams told the court there were ‘no assets, no rich living’ and said there was ‘nothing to show for it whatsoever except the prison sentence he will obviously have to endure’.
Curry initially denied the latest offences but later offered his BMW and £300 a month towards repaying the money.
That offer was refused and prosecutors have now begun Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings, which could see assets belonging to Curry seized.