Chorley company commercial director who was on £75,000 a year is on trial accused of stealing thousands of pounds

A company commercial director has denied stealing cash that belonged to his employers - including buying himself a motorbike from their funds.
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Christopher Beddall, 41, who gave his address as Victoria Road, Warley, Brentwood, Essex, denies charges of theft and a fraud, against Town and County Piling (TCP) Ltd in Chorley.

Opening the case, prosecuting barrister Arthur Gibson said: “Mr Beddall started to work for TCP in May 2017.

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“According to the directors, but later disputed by Mr Beddall, he had control of the company’s banking.

"He was in charge of paying suppliers, paying the employees their wages and in order to do that he held the company bank card, internet banking, cheques and paying in books. He had control of their Santander account.

“On September 8, 2017, whilst she was on holiday, one of the directors, Suzanne Hayes, was contacted by the fraud department of Santander.

“One of the regular suppliers to TCP was Taranto Ltd, and as such was supplying goods and TCP would make payments to them from the Santander account.

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“But on this particular day, Santander had picked up austensibly a payment of just over £11,000. What the fraud department had noted, which made them question the transaction, was that Taranto’s banking details appeared to have been changed.”

It is alleged account numbers for "suppliers" were changed to Beddall's own account or his partner's in order to carry out the offences.

(proceeding)