Spread bettor Stole £9m from Bosses to Feed Addiction

A 32-year-old worker at a large international engineering company stole more than £9 million from his firm to feed a gambling addiction, it emerged today.

Wing Kit Chu, of Dell Close, Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire, carried out a “well planned series of thefts” over a four year period from Charter Plc, police said.

He then used the money for spread betting on the financial markets, such as the Nasdaq and the FTSE.

Chu pleaded guilty to the theft of £9,080,939 when he appeared before a judge at Southwark Crown Court today. Sentencing was adjourned until January 14, pending reports.

Detective Sergeant Richard Ward, from Scotland Yard’s Economic and Specialist Crime Unit, described the series of thefts, which took place between January 1, 2000, and August 18, 2004, as “very clever”.

Chu, who worked in Charter’s finance division at its central London offices, would use other employees’ computer passwords to log on as them and authorise the payments, he said.

He then transferred the company’s money to an account he held with a spread betting firm, before using the cash to bet on whether the financial markets would go up or down.

It was a “very high risk strategy”, and over the four-year period he lost most of the money – only withdrawing a total of around £800,000 from his account, DS Ward said.

“This was a very well planned series of thefts and an incredible breach of trust both of fellow employees and the shareholders of Charter Plc,” he added.

Chu was arrested by police and charged in September after Charter made an allegation of fraud to Scotland Yard.

The company had earlier issued a statement in which it said it was investigating “a series of unauthorised payments totalling in the region of £10 million”.

In September, Charter issued a second statement in which it said investigators had identified £9.2 million worth of unauthorised payments made over a period of several years.

The company said it was “actively pursuing” recovery of the money and had also lodged a claim against its insurance policy, under which cover was limited to £5 million.

Ds Ward said: “I would imagine they will only get a fraction of it (the money) back because obviously he (Chu) lost so much of it while he was gambling.” .

A spokeswoman for Charter Plc today said the company had no further comment to make.

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