A former Balfour Beatty worker has been given a suspended jail sentence after stealing £75,000 of cabling from the contractor.
Paul Stott, 52, was discovered after he attempted to sell the cable to the same scrap metal dealer that Balfour Beatty uses, according to the Derby Telegraph.
Stott worked at Balfour for 14 years as a trainer. He was handed a 20-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months. He no longer works for Balfour Beatty.
A Balfour Beatty spokesperson confirmed: “Following a through investigation into allegations of theft, we can confirm that we subsequently terminated the contract of an employee.
“The actions and behaviour of the individual fell short of the high standard to which we hold all those who work with and for us accountable, as outlined in our code of ethics.”
Stott created false invoices and sent them from his Balfour email address. However, he gave his own name, address and bank details for where he wanted the money to be paid.
Last week, Derby Crown Court heard how he arranged for a dealer to pick up the drums of wiring on four separate occasions.
The barrels of cables, used for overhead power lines on railways, were being stored at Balfour Beatty’s site at Raynesway, in Derby’s eastern outskirts.
Stott, from Warrington, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to theft by employee. He has five previous convictions for 13 offences, but all of these date back to 2003 and earlier.
Prosecutor Serena Varatharajah said the firm paid £166,000 for 18 drums of the cabling around five years before he stole it. She said that in July 2021, a fellow employee noticed a gap in the storage area where the drums of cable were usually kept and challenged Stott on it.
Varatharajah said: “[An investigation showed] Stott had arranged for the dealer to collect them on a number of separate occasions but he arranged this using his work email and produced invoices under the name Northwest Associates being paid £28,700.
Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “You had a good job at Balfour Beatty, you were a trusted employee there for about 14 years.
“But in 2020, when your life was not perhaps in a good place in terms of your mental health and marriage, for purely financial reasons you decided to embark on this completely unsophisticated scheme for which you were guaranteed to be caught.
“You sold the wiring to the same scrap metal dealer used by Balfour Beatty, you gave them your name, your address and your own bank details. You were bound to get caught, you did get caught and when you were caught you admitted [it], you lost your job and found yourself in court.”
Judge Smith ordered Stott to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work, to attend 10 rehabilitation sessions and to pay £5,000 compensation.
Stott’s lawyer Julian King said his client had held his hands up to both the firm, which dismissed him following a disciplinary hearing in July 2021, and the court.
He said with depreciation and the amount of cabling that was stolen, the value of what he took, agreed by both the defence and prosecution, was just short of £75,000.
King said: “He lives with his fiancee and is the father of two adult children and two teenage children. The £28,000 was used to ensure he could meet his financial obligation of paying £900 per month in child maintenance.
“He has now managed to obtain employment training people again and he recognises his actions have put this in jeopardy.”