Company cash helped 'Parasite' businessman pay for lifestyle

Michael Black (l) with one of his victims Bathroom village director Steven Hawkins (r)

A man from Somerset passed himself off as the "lord mayor of the town" while he syphoned off cash from the firm where he worked, a colleague said.

Michael Black took the money from three businesses, spending it to fund a lavish lifestyle of holidays and cars.

The finance boss has been jailed for more than 10 years after admitting stealing £1.2m.

"I've called him a parasite and that's exactly what he was," said director of Bathroom Villages Steven Hawkins.

On more than 400 occasions, Black transferred money from their accounts to his, disguising the transfers so they did not appear to go directly to him.

E-commerce manager Jack Hawkins helped uncover some of Michael Black's fraud

Black's colleagues at Bathroom Villages uncovered his fraud while he was on a two-week holiday.

The fraud prevented the business from rewarding staff with pay rises and eventually drove the business into administration.

Two and a half years ago they managed to buy it back but their shops in Plymouth and Cheltenham were forced to close.

"The majority of the expenditure was just luxury items," said Jack Hawkins who works at Bathroom Villages in Wellington.

"The items and things were for the house he was building. Tennis court things, luxury cars, it was all about greed essentially."

'Hook of truth'

Analysis of his work email account uncovered photographs Black had sent to himself of parties and personalised cakes all bought with the company's money.

"It was just all about look at me, look how important I am, and all he'd done was stolen the money basically," added Mr Hawkins.

"Quite often there would be a hook of truth, for example he would book hotels with the company credit cards but he once booked a hotel room and used it for a meeting room and that allowed him to explain away all these things."

Avon and Somerset Police said Black was trusted with company finances at three different businesses.

Between 2010 and 2016, while working at UK Bathroom Village Ltd in Somerset, he used credit cards and wrote more than 200 company cheques for personal expenditure, the force said.

He also paid himself fake expenses totalling £36,000.

Police also found Black used company credit cards to make more than 1,000 Amazon purchases over four years, including electrical goods, speakers, books, plus DIY and gardening equipment.