Friday 9th May, 2014

An employee working for Nicholson McLaren has been found guilty of invoice fraud at Reading Crown Court. Lee Smith admitted four counts of fraud which related to invoices being submitted for racing car parts which were never delivered, amounting to £26,000. Mr Smith set up a series of bogus emails to demand payments from Nicholson McLaren, the subsequent payments were then sent to the addresses of members of his family.

Judge Morris said that the frauds were "carefully executed" and were only made possible because the defendant had worked for the company for quite a number of years, knew the systems and process thoroughly and had built up a high level of trust within the organisation, which Mr Smith abused. She said that the married father of two lived a lifestyle which was beyond their means, which their legitimate income could not sustain. She sent Mr Smith to prison for 21 months for each of the four counts.

Nicholson McLaren said that they were grateful for the work of Thames Valley Police for their thorough investigation and seeing this significant fraud through to its conclusion.