Kettering payroll fraudster 'extremely lucky' to avoid prison after creating fake work records to steal from employers

Robert Weaving, from Kettering, wiped tears from his face as a judge spared him from a spell behind bars after he created fictitious work records to steal more than £14,000 from food production firm Taste Original Ltd.

Some of his offending took place just after he was given a last chance by magistrates for a similar crime at his previous place of work – but Her Honour Judge Rebecca Crane ruled that it would be unjust to lock him up.

Yesterday (Monday) Northampton Crown Court heard the 47-year-old was employed as a payroll officer at the Corby food firm when his most recent fraud took place between October 2021 and September 2022.

He was responsible for processing employee wages and had a unique log-in to access the payroll system, which gave him the ability to add and remove employees as well as amending details such as bank accounts and tax codes.

Prosecutor Lynsey Knott said: “He had the ability to delete records which is undoubtedly how his activity went undetected for some time.”

Weaving, of Wood Street, added the names of four former employees to the system and submitted fraudulent timesheets for payments into his own bank account. He also created a made-up employee and submitted timesheets for fictitious hours worked.

In total 12 transactions were made to him for a total of £14,441.85, the court heard, before his crime was discovered while he was on annual leave.

Ms Knott said: “An anomaly was found in his own tax code…that then triggered an investigation.”

Weaving, who took a holdall into the dock in anticipation of a prison sentence, gave no comment answers to police when he was arrested in December 2022 before pleading guilty to a charge of fraud by abuse of position.

The court heard he was convicted of a separate fraud in March 2022 – during the period where he was defrauding Taste Original Ltd – after stealing from his former employers Capita in almost identical circumstances while he worked there as a payroll supervisor. He was given a 26-week prison sentence, which was suspended for 24 months, and Northampton Crown Court heard he has since paid back his debt to Capita. Some of his fraud at Taste Original Ltd took place while he was subject to the suspended sentence.

Mitigating, James Nash said Weaving suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression, had addictions to cocaine and gambling which were now under control and has since gained work on a rotisserie chicken counter.

He said his client had been engaging well with probation workers under his previous suspended sentence – but the claim was questioned by Judge Crane.

She said: “It’s difficult to say he engaged well when at the same time he was offending and therefore he cannot have been honest with them…he was not really engaging.”

Mr Nash raised further mitigation that prisons were overcrowded and said it would be unjust to activate Weaving’s suspended sentence, adding that he had been graded as being of ‘low risk’ to the public.

He said: “The risk is better managed in the community rather than a prison sentence and then being released without a job.”

Judge Crane said Weaving had a realistic prospect of rehabilitation which would ‘unravel’ if he was sent to prison and suspended his 12-month custodial sentence for 12 months.

But she warned him that he could not expect the courts to show mercy again, telling him: “You should consider yourself extremely lucky today to be walking out of that door (the public exit) rather than that door (the cells).”

Weaving must take part in a six-month mental health treatment requirement, six-month drug rehabilitation programme and 20 rehabilitation activity days. He will face a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at a later date.

Taste Original Ltd has been contacted for comment.