Fraudster Covered up £600,000 Theft with Tipp-Ex

A financial controller who stole £602,000 from his employer attempted to hide his fraudulent activities with a Tipp-Ex pen.

Nicholas Dewhirst, who admitted stealing company money to pay his credit card bills, was jailed for five years.

Between 2003 and 2011, the 53-year-old made 151 unauthorised money transfers. He tried to cover his tracks by changing the name of his account to those of his employer Dystar UK Ltd’s customers with Tipp-Ex.

Dewhirst finally admitted his fraudulent activity when he was sacked from his £40,000-a-year job last year.

Dystar managed to secure a judgment against the Leeds resident for the money he took. It was during the Bradford crown court case that full details of the cover-up came to light.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC dubbed his attempts to hide his crimes as ‘varying from the reasonably sophisticated to the amateur wielding of a Tipp-Ex pen’.