SBS director jailed
23 / 08 / 2011
A FINANCE director for SBS Worldwide has been jailed for stealing more than £1 million (US$1.6 million) from his freight forwarder employer.
Between 2001 and 2010 Michael Clark (right) issued himself unauthorised bonuses, used company cheques to pay for personal credit cards, used the company’s air miles account to pay for personal flights abroad and stole money from its expense account. Clark had worked for the company since 1994 and been a director since 1997.
Judge Philip Statman at Maidstone Crown Court sentenced Clark to four years in prison – for theft, false accounting and furnishing false information – reduced to three as Clark intends to pay back all the money he stole. Since his arrest last year he has sold a house he owned and already paid back £750,000 ($1.32 million).
Judge Statman said: “You have had the good sense to plead guilty at an early opportunity. Regrettably, this was persistent stealing and now I have to punish you.”
