Web Gambler Stole to Repay 26,000 UK Pound Loss
4 Jan 2006
EXETER, UK -- As reported by the Guardian: "A clerk at a bureau de change was jailed yesterday for stealing more than £26,000 in just four weeks to meet debts she and her boyfriend ran up by gambling on the internet. Cindy Streets fiddled computer records to try to hide the theft.
"She and her boyfriend, Paul Hocking, described at Exeter crown court as a gambling addict, spent hours placing increasingly large amounts of money on online poker tables and betting exchanges, hoping in vain to recoup the losses.
"But after a month her bosses at Lets Go Travel noticed that £2,000 in foreign currency was missing and her scam was uncovered.
"Streets, 21, of Exeter, who admitted three offences of false accounting and asked for the theft of £26,218.08 to be taken into consideration, was jailed for 12 months..."