A FRAUDSTER stole more than £70,000 from his employers – before ‘treating’ one of the company directors with the money, a court has heard.

Allan Gadd, of Tree Hamlets in Upton, Poole, was jailed for four years for his thefts.

He had been working at 1st for Care in the accounts department for just a month before he started to steal funds.

Judge John Harrow at Bournemouth Crown Court heard that the 42-year-old spent some of the cash on gifts for his partner, as well as for one of the company’s directors, whom he had “fallen for” during his time working there.

Prosecuting, Sadie Rizzo said some of the 50 people employed by 1st for Care had suffered as a result of Gadd’s deception.

“Permanent members of staff have had to go on temporary contracts with reduced hours,” she said. “One employee didn’t receive her maternity pay.”

She said the total loss to the company was £116,613, which includes both the money stolen by Gadd and the cost of investigating the fraud independently, recovering data and other expenses.

Gadd also failed to pay taxes to Revenue and Customs for both 1st for Care and an ‘umbrella’ company he established to deceive his employers about the fraud.

More than £250,000 in tax was currently owed by the company.

Mitigating, Mark Ruffell said his client had fallen into a “catastrophic and chaotic pattern of compulsiveness”.

“He is a man who has grown up feeling desperately insecure but surrounded himself with overconfidence,” he said, adding that Gadd had recently been divorced and found himself unable to keep up with mortgage repayments.

“He starts stealing in order to pay those off,” he said. “In the meantime, he starts a relationship with his current partner. He then fell for the partner he was then working for. He ended up spending money on all three of them.”

Gadd admitted two counts of fraud on dates between March 3, 2011, and July 20, 2012, on his first appearance at the court.

He was labelled “a serial fraudster” by Judge Harrow, who heard he already had two convictions for similar offences.

“It is the third time you have committed a serious breach of trust as an employee,” he said, adding that it was a “sophisticated manipulation”. You left behind you a trail of havoc,” he said.