A book-keeper who stole almost £2m from his estate agency employers, all but ruining it and causing five people to lose their jobs, has had his sentence cut.
Julian Kremer, 49, stole at the rate of £250,000 a year as he fiddled the accounts at Richard Worth estate agents in Wokingham, Berkshire.
In total he stole £1,981,916 and used the money to fund a gambling habit and a lifestyle involving lavish hotel stays.
In a lengthy investigation, police found he had transferred money from five company accounts to his own.
Sentencing him to five years in March, Recorder Martin Heslop, at Reading Crown Court, described Kremer’s offence as “almost as bad as it can get”.
Kremer’s crimes came to light at the end of January 2013 after two employees had not been paid their salaries. Confronted by the boss of the company, managing director Stephen Jones, Kremer admitted he had taken the huge sum over a period of four and a half years.
He had used most of the money to fund an internet gambling habit, but also lived the high life and bought a plot of land in Scotland so he could have a ‘laird’ title.
Company director Steven Jones, who runs the company under the names Richard Worth Ltd, Richard Worth Residential Ltd and Richard Worth Holdings Ltd, told the court he had known Kremer for almost 20 years. The court heard that Mr Jones had had to lay off five employees and taken on £1m in debt personally.
Police said at the time that they were pleased Kremer had been given a significant sentence.
But Kremer has now had his sentence cut to four years by judges at the Criminal Appeal Court.
His lawyers argued his jail term was ‘far too tough’ in light of sentencing guidelines for theft of this amount.
Mr Justice Lindblom said following the guidelines would have seen him receive a sentence of four years.
Sitting with Lord Justice Burnett and Mrs Justice Carr, he reduced the original sentence by one year.
The report of the cut in his sentencing is here
The estate agency firm, judging by its website, has fought back and is very much in business.
Comments (5)
I hope the agent had full client money protection insurance in place and no landlords lost any money. Otherwise why are the directors also not going to jail….
How can the directors and auditors not see that amount of money going missing for so many years?
ringi your comments always manage to make me raise my eyebrows.
How can you even look at placing blame on the owners. There BOOK KEEPER stole the money so i am sure all accounts looked in order.
As for saying the poor owners should go to jail, the owner has taken out a 1 MILLION POUND LOAN and i would think that is partially to make sure his clients are not disadvantaged.
Nothing like kicking someone when they are down!
if I were the owner of that company I know who I would be visiting as soon as he comes out of prison. That must have been devastating to the business and well done to them to bounce back but as most business owners take things very personally I dont think I could just let it go with a prison sentence of 4 years –
It would ruin my life and my familys financial life if that happened to me – hence why i control all the money in and out.
You asked how it is done, would you like a lesson how to nick money from a client cash account and get away with it? I know of several ways to deceive directors and auditors that are completely undetectable and if detected all evidence of wrong doing deleted in 7 seconds or a single phone call.
If I weren’t honest I would be earning about £180,000 annually from rounding errors in software that not even the most determined forensic accountant would spot even if I told them what I was doing.
In respect of CMP, as I understand it CMP covers loss due the the wrong doing of Directors and Principals not staff, professional indemnity insurance covers vicarious liability losses.
A laughable sentence…. unless Kremer is going to work for no wage for 20 plus Years…. which he won’t. To engage in theft over a period of years, cause 5 people to lose their jobs and almost destroy a business?…… 5 Years?… then reduce it to 4 Years? Absolute scandal!
The Courts & UK Law are guilty of having no appreciation of what an appropriate sentence is for a crime!
Tip Toe Kremer and hide away, be grateful of such laughable leniency. You would have been marginally more acceptable if you had taken your sentence, kept silent, served it….. and shuffled off!