A worker who tried to scam his former boss by forging county court documents saying he was owed hundreds of pounds in unpaid wages ended up before a real judge today.
Mersub Ahmed, 28, ghosted his boss Danny Hamman after failing to turn up to work at a bureau de change.
Weeks later, documents purporting to be from Brighton County Court were delivered to Mr Hamman saying a judgment had been made in Ahmed’s favour for £500.
However, it didn’t take Mr Hamman long to work out the documents were fake, and today Ahmed found himself in the dock charged with the unusual offence of knowingly delivering a copy of a paper purporting to be a county court process.
Prosecuting, Lydia Stephens said Ahmed started working for Currencygem, which was based in Oxford Street, in December 2022, but failed to turn up to work the following February.
The shop had to close for a week as a result.
She said: “Mr Hamman contacted Ahmed via WhatsApp but was left unread.
“The following month, he received what appeared to be a notice of judgment ordering him to pay £500 in what was said to be unpaid wages.
“Mr Hamman contacted his accountant and his solicitor and checked with them and then contacted the county court.
“He found that the claim number reference did relate to a real claim number but there had been no proceedings.
“The defendent then emailed Mr Hamman breaking down the figures of what he said he was owed.
“It was revealed that the documents were entirely false.”
Defending, James Oliveira-Agnew said that Ahmed had recently graduated from university when he began working for Currencygem.
He said: “He sort of took the view he didn’t know why he had done it. He thought it was a joke. That was clearly not right, given what the victim says about it.
“This whole process is not one Ahmed wants to repeat.”
He pleaded guilty to the charge last month, at the first opportunity.
Ahmed, of Stagelands, Crawley, was also in court earlier this year, when he pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and one count of theft.
He had stolen his colleague Amanda Dickson’s bank card and used it to buy bus and train tickets and goods from shops at Gatwick and Crawley in November last year. He was given a community order for those offences.
Sentencing today at Hove Crown Court, Judge Christine Henson said: “He doesn’t really seem to understand his thoroughly dishonest behaviour.
“Opportunistically taking valuables in his place of work and not really thinking it through.
“I do worry about what his approach to being a law-abiding citizen is.
“He’s clearly an educated man. It’s just all quite odd.”
She gave him another 18-month community sentence, ordering him to undertake 10 rehabilitation activity days with a focus on thinking skills, to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and to pay £150 in court costs.
And yet a woman is jailed for 31 months for a facebook post. Hmmmm two Tier Justice.