Accountant jailed for 'industrial scale' £1.4m fraud

Stephen Day admitted 12 fraud offences and was jailed for 11 years five months

An accountant who committed "industrial scale dishonesty" to fund a lavish lifestyle has been jailed.

Stephen Day, 51, of Perthshire, Scotland, plundered £1.4m from firms and defrauded the NHS.

The court heard he targeted a female friend in a £4,500 romance fraud and lied about his mother dying and having cancer to cover up his tracks.

Day who admitted 12 fraud offences from 2012 to 2015 was jailed at Leeds Crown Court for 11 years and five months.

'Cancer lies'

His ill-gotten gains funded a taste for luxury holidays, expensive furniture and car accessories, the court heard.

Day, now of Quiech Mill, Alyth, but who previously lived in Manchester and Leeds, used his accountancy skills and status to be appointed as director, financial director or company secretary of four organisations.

These included a care home provider for vulnerable people and the management company in the block of flats he lived in.

He then sought to empty their bank accounts into his own and hide the trail with false ledger accounts.

Another victim was Gloucester-based Avida Care, where he was responsible for the payroll.

Day also admitted fraud by misrepresentation as he failed to disclose to three NHS trusts he was working full-time for them simultaneously - earning £2,000 a day.

The defendant resorted to lies when he struggled to meet all his commitments or was asked for financial information claiming he had cancer, his mother was dying and he was mourning his father's death, who died nine years earlier.

His deception cost to Merseyside Commissioning Support Unit, South East Staffordshire and Seisdon Peninsula Clinical Commissioning Group and Cheshire and Wirral Partnership Trust totalled about £88,000.

Judge Simon Batiste said his most cynical fraud was committed on a female friend he concocted reasons to borrow £4,500 from.

He told Day he caused "misery and hardship" to many, with businesses being wound up and people losing their jobs due to his "industrial scale dishonesty purely to fulfil your own greed".

Day was also disqualified from being a director for nine years.

Following sentencing, Det Sgt Stuart Donohue, from Greater Manchester Police, said the force would now look at a proceeds of crime hearing "to try and recoup some of the funds he stole, to recompense his numerous victims".

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