3:34 pm, September 21, 2022
A Sytner Group BMW manager stole £62,000 from his own car dealership after being promoted to a position of responsibility.
Richard Aston, of Langford Avenue, Great Barr, was promoted to a parts manager at the local Sytner Group BMW dealership and given authority to issue refunds.
Aston made dozens of fraudulent transactions in the space of a year by issuing refunds to bank accounts of a friend, his brother-in-law and wife.
His wife now has to help him repay the cash he took.
The 37-year-old appeared at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, September 16, and was handed a two year sentence suspended for two years.
He was ordered to repay the full amount, according to reports in the Birmingham Mail.
Prosecutor Darron Whitehead explained that Aston had worked for the BMW dealership as a parts supervisor since 2008.
He was promoted to parts manager and had responsibility for managing staff and authorising refunds.
An internal investigation at the dealership found the extent of the fraud, which totalled £62,320.
The offences were committed between March 2018 and March 2019.
Whitehead told the court how a colleague at the dealership had snapped messages from Aston which alluded to his ‘guilt and acknowledgement of how much money he had taken’.
Defence counsel Mukhtiar Ubhi asked for a full physiological assessment stating Aston had been battling mental health issues, but, according to the Mail, the ‘barrister offered no further mitigation when Judge Roderick Henderson indicated he would not be sending Aston to prison immediately’.
The judge said: ‘It is a case of a man who worked for a significant time honestly. He’s had some person problems. Is of previous good character. If there is a case for a suspended sentence, this is it.’
Aston must carry out 30 days of rehabilitation activity and 120 hours of unpaid work as well as repay the full £62,320.
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