A carpenter wore his former employer’s uniform to fraudulently order thousands of pounds worth of goods on account, a court heard today.
Luke Schermuly, of Boundary Road, Hove, was on a zero hours contract for heat pump company A Greener Alternative when they told him he wouldn’t be getting any more work.
Aggrieved, he went to three building supplies stores in Brighton and ordered £3,771.85 worth of goods on tick.
When A Greener Alternative was sent the invoices, they called the police.
Detectives identified Schermuly from CCTV images of him wearing the company uniform in the shops – Travis Perkins, Plumb Centre and HPS, all of which were left to pick up the bill.
When arrested, he told police he had intended to sell the goods.
Prosecuting at Brighton Magistrates Court today, Florence Odongo said: “On 31 July 2024 he recieved a conditional caution to pay back the monetary value of the items.
“He was given a period of 16 weeks but that didn’t happen, hence the current matter before you.”
Schermuly was charged with three counts of fraud, which he pleaded guilty to at the first hearing.
Defending, Ed Fish said: “He just couldn’t get the money together.
“He was working for the company and he was told that you are not going to get any more work from us.
“He felt aggrieved by that to have just stopped work with no notice when he had not done anything wrong and felt he was owed something and appears to have done absolutely the wrong thing which he regrets afterwards.”
Sentencing, Harry Callaghan said: “Back in the day you were offered a community resolution. I’m quite sure had you contacted the authorities at that time rather than stuck your head in the sand, there could have been arrangements made for you.
“But here we are.
“There’s a lot of money to paid and that you will do.
“You are a man of previous good character. We give you a conditional discharge – it’s a lengthy one, the longest that we can give, 36 months or three years.
“We reckon it will take you that long to pay back the money.”
As well as ordering compensation in the full amount each company was defrauded of, Schermuly was also ordered to pay a surcharge of £26 and costs of £85.
Good that the company got their fraud case taken seriously for a theft of less than £5k. The Police seem increasingly reluctant to do their jobs these days.
There will be a lot of tradespeople reading this who will have some sympathy for anyone employed on a zero hours contract, and trying to pay their bills in this modern age.
For sure, what he did was wrong, but it would be interesting to know what he was being paid in the lead up to this fall out.
It’s also worth mentioning that heat pumps are usually a bit sh*t, and not a great investment.
I agree with you on that front. I’ve seen some zero-hour contracts which are equivalent to modern slavery, and when your income is so unpredictable, it’s really difficult to make ends meet. Still, going and metaphorically stealing the office equipment as retribution was a very stupid idea.
The real crime here is alowing these shoddy companies to exploit workers with these zero hour contracts