A CAR sales boss scammed thousands of pounds from his employers after a half-year binge left him saddled with debt.

Swindon Crown Court heard yesterday that Grant Stiddard, 46, had defrauded thousands from his then employers Chippenham Motor Company between mid-2019 and February last year.

He took cash from customers and raised false invoices to motor factors around the country.

Stiddard paid back some of the money he stole, but there remained an outstanding amount of around £23,000.

John Dyer, for Stiddard, said his client had previously been employed by a dealership in Bristol but had lost the job – and, briefly, his marriage – after what was described in court as a "romantic indiscretion" at work resulted in an allegation of harassment.

He took the matter to an employment tribunal and lost. Stiddard suffered what the judge termed a significant mid-life crisis. He went on a lengthy drink and drug binge and borrowed heavily. 

Mr Dyer said: “He lost the tribunal and, without his wife, in his early 40s for a period of about six months or so he behaved like a 20-year-old, vastly overconsuming things he should not have been consuming and running into debt with gambling.”

He took the job in Chippenham, taking around a £15,000-a-year pay cut on his previous salary, but was still left with debts of around £65,000.

Stiddard’s barrister said: “At the centre of this offending is the complete hopelessness of this fraud. It looks on the papers sophisticated, but it wasn’t.”

The defendant was said to be extremely unwell, suffering from poor mental health. Mr Dyer said: “He is full of remorse. He doesn’t know quite why he did this, except out of desperation. He bitterly regrets those months he spent being, as it were, relatively immature.”

His wife and family had stood by him, the court heard.

Stiddard, of Tytherington, Gloucestershire, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to fraud.

Imposing a 16 month prison sentence suspended for two years, Judge Jason Taylor QC said of the fraud: “It was never going to go the distance. You were always ultimately going to be – I suspect – found out.

“But the ease with which you could do it and your greed and desperation led you to increase the amounts in order to pay off substantial debts which you felt under pressure about.

“I am dealing with you today for a fraud with a total value of £23,000. The gravamen here is the breach of trust because any company needs to be able to trust its employees in order to operate because you can’t watch people 24/7.”

Stiddard must carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.