A company based in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, received reimbursement of almost £590,000 after company credit cards were used by an employee to fuel her gambling habit.
At the hearing, which took place at the Crown Court in Derry on November 19th, a Public Prosecution Service barrister confirmed that the online gambling operator that previously received the unauthorised payments, 32Red, had repaid the money to the owners of S3 Alliance. The reimbursement covers almost the entire amount that had been stolen by the woman from her employer.
The barrister has explained that the online gambling operator paid the money back as a gratuity. A defence Queen’s Council barrister told the court that several accountants had been engaged by both the prosecution and the defence to determine whether the entire amount had been paid back to the company that was affected by its employee’s stealing. Furthermore, the defendant was awaiting a consultant psychiatrist’s assessment.
The case was adjourned for a mention that is set to take place on November 29th, 2019. Then, a plea hearing is scheduled for December 20th, 2019. For the time being, the defendant remains released on bail.
The Employee Stole the Funds to Fuel Her Online Gambling Habits
At a previous court appearance that took place in October 2019, the former S3 Alliance employee Tracey Curran admitted that she misappropriated the above-mentioned amount in the period from January 2016 to April 2017. The woman pleaded guilty to six charges of fraud, as she had made a number of online gambling transactions with 32Red by using the company’s credit cards without authorisation.
At the hearing in October, a Public Prosecution Service barrister explained to the judge that the defendant used all of the money to fuel her gambling habit, as the entire amount had been lost to the online gambling site of 32Red. The transactions had been made for more than a year.
No information whether or not the woman was categorised as a gambling addict has been available so far.
In September 2019, the online gambling operator 32Red received a warning from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in regard to two paid-for Google search ads promoting the company’s services. The advertising watchdog called for 32Red to be more careful when targeting its gambling adverts, as some of the ads could be taken as a reference to content that is particularly appealing to children.
The online gambling company has also suffered a massive financial penalty due to its failure to ensure the required customer protection. In June 2018, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) imposed a financial penalty package of £2 million, as 32Red was found guilty of not acting in correspondence to its social responsibility and anti-money laundering rules. The gambling regulatory body held an investigation and found that the company allowed a customer to make massive money transactions in the period from November 2014 to April 2017 without carrying out any of the checks that it was supposed to.
- Author
Olivia Cole
