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Jailed bank manager ordered to sell car
Paul Buck, 36, who has been jailed for stealing �434,000 from a client at Santander in Fishergate, Preston. He was jailed for two years, eight months
A disgraced bank manager has been ordered to sell his Mini Cooper and private registration plate to pay for his crimes.
But shamed Paul Buck has been told he must pay back just a fraction of what he stole from an elderly customer to fund his gambling habit.
Earlier this year Buck, a former manager at Preston’s Fishergate branch of Santander, was jailed for two years after admitting stealing £434,000 from the 91-year-old doctor, who lived in Whittle-le-Woods.
But at a Proceeds of Crime Hearing at Preston Crown Court he was ordered to pay back just £4,299 from the sale of his Mini and cherished personalised number plate.
Frances McEntee, prosecuting, said Buck’s home, in Langham Road, Standish, was in negative equity, and his £55,000 company pension could not be cashed in.
However Judge Stuart Baker said the court had the power to release any future equity in the house should it increase in value.
He added: “The court has the power to order that the confiscated sum will be used entirely for the purpose of compensating the victim.”
Buck, who previously earned £57,000 a year in his managerial role at Santander, previously pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining money by deception and 13 of fraud after swindling cheques from a 91-year-old called Dr Peter Wren, who was paying him to invest the cash.
Preston Crown Court heard although Buck had at first helped the doctor make a profit, he then began paying the cheques into his own bank account using it to pay off credit card debt wracked up by internet gambling.
The married father-of-three, who started working for Santander in 2001, was working as a financial advisor at the time the offences started in 2005 but was promoted to a regional manager in 2006.
The court heard that he would usually gamble anywhere between £100 and £300 a time but on one occasion he bet £10,000 on a horse.
On another occasion he won £15,000 after gambling £3,000 and was back in arrears the following day.
Prosecuting, Brett Gerrity, revealed Buck had realised he had a problem after reading about the unexpected death of footballer Gary Speed in November, after which it was wrongly claimed he had a gambling addiction.
On December 8, Buck visited Dr Wren’s elderly wife and told her what he had done.
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Sunday 19 May 2013
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