An accountant who stole £150,000 from the writer of kids’s classics together with Tintin and Fireman Sam was spared jail after he agreed to pay again the cash.
Rizwan Sami, 37, defrauded Egmont UK Ltd for greater than a 12 months and despatched among the cash to aged relations in Pakistan.
Egmont UK Ltd – the British arm of Danish media big Egmont Group – can also be the writer for Thomas & Mates and Michael Morpurgo.
Sami appeared at Southwark Crown Court docket this morning sporting a purple puffer jacket and blue surgical face masks.
Rizwan Sami, 37, an accountant admitted stealing £150,000 from the writer of kids’s classics and was handed a suspended sentence at Southward Crown Court docket (pictured) as we speak
Sami defrauded Egmont UK Ltd – writer of kids’s classics together with Tintin and Fireman Sam (TV present pictured) – for greater than a 12 months and despatched among the cash to aged relations in Pakistan
He admitted fraud by abuse of place and was given a suspended jail sentence after a decide heard he has paid again £85,000 and pays £750 a month to settle the steadiness.
Josh Normanton, defending, stated the married father-of-one is at present ‘staring into the abyss’ and pleaded for him to not be jailed.
‘He acts as a main carer for dependant relations. He would have a spouse and baby left in a particularly susceptible place if he’s despatched to jail.’
Sami, initially from Pakistan, got here to the UK in 2009 and studied for a postgraduate diploma in Advertising at Anglia Ruskin College. He turned a British citizen in 2017.
‘On the finish of 2015 the character of his work modified, and he was requested to tackle much more work and even tackle the work of others whose employment had ended, he requested for more cash however wasn’t given it.
‘He started offending in July 2016 into early 2017, among the cash went out to Pakistan to his aged relations
‘He accepts his offences contains loads of dishonesty and greed.
‘He determined to cease appearing in that method, as he gained one thing of a conscience, and left the function of an accountant in 2017.
‘Clearly he did not have the power of character to return to Egmont and come clean with what he had achieved,’ stated Mr Normanton.
Egmont UK additionally publish the Thomas & Mates books (Thomas the Tank Engine TV sequence pictured)
Because the offences Sami has been concerned in lots of charity fundraising occasions together with ‘Feed The Homeless’ occasions and volunteered all through the covid-19 pandemic.
‘He’s now an worker of a software program firm and is now not doing accounting.
‘He’s a special man to the person he was because the begin of 2015; he’s concerned in religion actions and is now a father and husband, all of that’s in opposition to the backdrop of a wrestle with psychological well being since 2017.’ stated Mr Normanton
Since he was charged final 12 months Sami has repaid £85,000 again to Egmont, the court docket heard.
Choose James Tayler stated: ‘This falls in excessive culpability due to the abuse of the defendant’s place of energy belief and duty.
‘I respect the defendant has actual regret for what has occurred, there was a major time of apprehension between the charging of this offence and coming to condemn.
‘The defendant has now paid again £85,000. I contemplate that these elements along with the very appreciable work he has achieved in his group must be taken under consideration.
‘I nonetheless conclude that that is an offence so severe that solely a custodial sentence could be justified, it’s unavoidable that there be a sentence of imprisonment.’
Sami, of Putney, admitted fraud by abuse of place, between 22 July 2016 and 19 September 2017.
He was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment, suspended for 2 years, and ordered to pay again £750 a month for 3 years.
