A government insider, who hid his criminal past and lack of qualifications to get a job as an accountant for the deputy prime minister, has been jailed for four years for siphoning off Р€1 million in British taxpayers' money via a front company.
The unqualified accountant managed to hide earlier convictions and successfully interview for a job in the office of UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. He lied so convincingly about his experience that no one bothered to check his background. That negligence shown by the personnel manager, combined with the fraudulent intentions of the new employee, eventually cost the government office Р€1 million. The insider was finally caught and sentenced last week to four years in prison. His wife was also sentenced to six months for her part in the scam.
One month after he started working for the deputy PM, Robert Adewunmi, 32, set up a front company and then created an imaginary colleague to systematically siphon off up to Р€133,000 at a time.
Gambling addict Adewunmi had no problems disposing of his ill-gotten gains. Apart from clearing his debts, he bought top-of-the-range cars for himself and his wife and real estate on both sides of the Atlantic. The insider even splashed out Р€1,000 on manicures.
Passing sentencing, the judge emphasized that people such as Adewunmi should not be given the opportunity to work in positions with such broad authority or be trusted with finances. He added that companies and state organizations should carry out thorough checks on accounts and protect sensitive documents from manipulation.
“To expose such crimes the U.S. has the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Britain has the Combined Code. Of course, the deputy prime minister's office is not a public company, so tough regulations to protect investors play no role here. Nevertheless, audits and checks eventually uncover such insiders, which was what actually happened. It's difficult to believe he thought he could get away with it," says Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
“The timely prevention of fraud — retrieving the money while you still can — is quite another matter. It can be achieved by any organization by implementing mechanisms of internal control and protection to prevent financial accounts from being manipulated, falsified and so on," adds Denis Zenkin.
Source: This is London
