A former National Trust employee who defrauded the organisation out of more than £1million has been jailed.

Roger Bryant, 73, of Barnstaple, Devon, appeared at Bristol Crown Court on Friday, September 20, along with his two sons who laundered the proceeds of the fraud.

Bryant was employed by the National Trust, which is headquartered in Swindon, as a building surveyor when he committed a string of frauds against his employer by issuing 148 invoices from two fake companies linked to his sons for work that wasn’t done.

The money was actually being transferred into the accounts of his sons James Bryant, 49, and Scott Bryant, 38, both from Barnstaple. 

The fraud was discovered in October 2013, when the National Trust was updating its approach to procurement.

A company linked to Roger Bryant’s son James was identified as the biggest supplier to the Trust in that area, but none of the managers had heard of it.

The Trust then began to look closely at some of the invoices and conducted site visits to look at the ‘work’ that they were not satisfied had been done. Roger Bryant was suspended, and the matter was reported to the police.

Roger Bryant attempted to pervert the course of justice, by asking two people to lie and say that they had witnessed works at various locations, when in fact they had not.  

He also arranged to move cardboard boxes full of National Trust paperwork, such as deeds and plans, to an old milking shed on James Bryant’s farm, which he did not mention to the police, at the same time claiming that the National Trust had lost paperwork that would prove his innocence.

In a separate fraud, Roger Bryant submitted invoices in relation to a real contractor for work supposedly carried out on National Trust properties when the work was in fact done on his own property.

The Crown presented evidence from an expert building surveyor who examined the ‘work’ locations and found no evidence of work done. Some of the properties were occupied by tenants, and none of them had any recollection of the work.

The Crown’s case was that the two companies who had submitted the 148 invoices authorised by Roger Bryant, were not real – there was no record of any such company purchasing the large amounts of building supplies that would have been required for such work.  

None of the other Trust contractors had heard of the companies. James Bryant was in fact a full-time farmer.

Bank account evidence showed money being transferred from the National Trust to accounts controlled by James and Scott Bryant nearly 150 times over the time period covered by the charges.

Roger Bryant was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.  James Bryant was jailed for four years and Scott Bryant received an 18-month suspended sentence plus 170 hours of unpaid work.

Sian Mitchell from the Crown Prosecution Service said:  “As an employee of the National Trust, Roger Bryant had been placed in a position of trust, which he breached, committing significant fraud against them.

“At every stage of the investigation, he tried to mislead investigators, attempting to hide paperwork and even trying to persuade witnesses to lie. However, the prosecution was able to build a robust case to prove beyond doubt that he was guilty.

“The National Trust is a registered charity and the money defrauded should have gone to help continue its good work and benefit the public.

Detective Inspector Adam Bond from Devon and Cornwall Police said:  “This has been a complex case hindered by the passage of time, but due to the support and assistance given by representatives of the National Trust, the CPS and prosecuting counsel, the jury who sat through nearly three months of evidence were able to pass guilty verdicts on all but three of the charges leading to today's sentences.