Two convicted thieves who stole almost £75,000 from the Hove childcare firm they had worked at for years have now been ordered to repay the money.
This follows two court confiscation hearings, the second of which took place at Brighton Crown Court today.
Robin Andrews, 33, of Bramber Avenue, Hove, and Clive Edwards, 54, of Whitelot Close, Southwick, were employed in positions of trust in the finance office at Early Years Childcare plc of Wilbury Villas, Hove, for more than six years.
In August 2008 the new finance manager for the company spotted discrepancies in the accounts and a police investigation revealed details of unauthorised payments from the company account into the personal accounts of the two employees.
Andrews had received stolen funds of over £49,000 and Edwards had received stolen funds of over £25,000 between October 2005 and August 2008. Both were charged with conspiracy to steal the monies.
On 16 July 2009 at Brighton Crown Court the pair, having earlier pleaded guilty, were both sentenced 15 months imprisonment.
After further enquiries by police financial crime experts confiscation, hearings were held at the same court.
Today Judge Tain declared that Edwards had benefited from his criminal conduct by £25,450.00 and, acknowledging that he had already repaid £3,000 of the money stolen in 2006, made a confiscation order in the sum of £22,450.00 which will then be paid to Early Years Childcare as compensation. Edwards has six months to pay or he faces a further 18 months imprisonment.
The judge had earlier dealt with confiscation matters for Andrews by declaring that he had benefited from his criminal conduct by £49,981.28, and ordered the confiscation of all of his assets, valued now at £1,000 and compensation in that sum was also paid to Early Years Childcare.
