In early September 2004, Little went sick and his regional manager covered his duties. On a visit to one of the sites, he noticed that, although the timesheets indicated four cleaners worked there, only three cleaners operated at the site. Little had told the site supervisor that he had costed an employee working elsewhere to the site to balance his budget. However, when the regional manager investigated, he found that the surplus employee had never worked at another site.
Surelock investigated and established that from July 2002, Little had introduced “ghost” employees to the company and there were now four bogus individuals receiving wages as cleaners in his area. Checks showed that the company had sustained losses in excess of £24,750 to his criminal activities.
In January 2005, Surelock reported the matter to the Fraud Unit of Merseyside Police and assisted the police investigation with draft statements. During a thorough investigation, Little and four of his associates, who had lent their identities to the fraud, were arrested and they all admitted conspiring to defraud the company. They were charged accordingly.
The defendants were arraigned before Liverpool Crown Court and, after a number of appearances, pleaded 'guilty' to all the charges in March 2006. Proceedings were adjourned until 28th April 2006 for pre-sentence reports. The company will formally apply for full compensation from the defendants when they are each sentenced. Little, Hughes, Knight, Crane and McHollern appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on 5th May 2006. Little was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. Hughes was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment. Knight was sentenced to 4 months imprisonment. Crane was ordered to serve 200 hours community service. McHollern was ordered to serve 140 hours community service. All defendants were ordered to compensate the company £8,000.00.