Jail for finance fraudster (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Jail for finance fraudster

THE former finance manager of the Cirencester-based Milk Development Council (MDC) has been jailed for two years after admitting creaming off £90,000 of public funds.

Accountant Patrick Morris, 55, of Shepperton, Surrey, cheated the government and dairy farmers with a series of false invoices, covering his tracks by presenting false annual reports to the government, says the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) which launched a joint investigation with Gloucestershire Police.

Speaking after the case, a spokesman for the SFO said the new finance manager at the MDC estimated that £400,000 had been stolen during the tine Morris was in charge.

Morris resigned from the MDC soon after it relocated from London to the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester in 1999.

In August 2002 he was charged with 24 counts of forgery, five counts of false accounting and four counts of publishing a false statement and he was due to go on trial.

But on January 30 he pleaded guilty to three counts of making a false invoice amounting to £90,000, which took place in 1998 and 1999 at Bristol Crown Court.

Another 30 charges were ordered to lie on file.

He was sentenced to two years jail on Monday at Exeter Crown Court. Following the sentencing DC James Sharp of Gloucestershire Constabulary said he was satisfied with the result.

"Since this investigation began in September 2000 a great deal of work has been undertaken by ourselves and the Serious Fraud Office to bring this case to court," he said.

"We believe the three guilty pleas Morris entered are testament to the strength of the case we were able to present.

"There is a particular resonance in the fact that the organisation defrauded was the Milk Development Council, which works on the behalf of many milk producers in this and other rural communities."

The SFO spokesman said that although the case fell below the £1 million threshold for investigation by them they took on the case because of its "significant public concern".

The MDC employs eight staff and has continued to operate as normal since Morris' departure.

It is funded by a levy of 0.6p on each litre of milk produced and its main aims are to fund market research and development.