Warwick Crown Court has heard how a gambling addict lived the high life after swindling more than £200,000 out of his trusting employers.
Paul Bicknell, 24, pictured, drove Aston Martins and Porsches, funded by thefts from the Warwick computer firm where he had worked since he was 16. But his real motivation for the crimes was to fund his online gambling debts.
Bicknell, of Stockto
n Road, Long Itchington, was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to nine charges of theft from Rock Computers and one of burgling its premises in Warwick. He was said to have lived in a “fantasy world” as lies to explain his actions became more and more complex.
Prosecutor Tammy Mears said that Nick Boardman, chief executive of Rock Computers, had taken Bicknell on when he was just 16 and he rose through the ranks to become head of sales. In 2005 Bicknell became the main contact for a company called CFA Trading who found him “helpful and always willing to assist” with their purchases of computer parts and equipment.
CFA paid by card, and last year its management became concerned payments were going through the accounts of garages rather than directly to Rock. They noticed Bicknell was driving prestigious cars, but trusted him, and accepted his explanation that the Rock system was down.
Bicknell then moved out of his parents’ home to rent a room from colleague Ross Soden, who noticed him using a computer into the night on a regular basis. Bicknell revealed that he was gambling online.
“He began turning up later for work or not going in at all, on one occasion claiming he had been to the wake of his grandfather, who was in fact still alive.
After being confronted in July this year, Bicknell resigned from Rock Computers.
The following month Bicknell took his key to the Rock Computers warehouse, let himself in and stole computers worth £11,497 which he sold.
When he was arrested, and the hired Porsche he was driving taken from him, officers found he had also been paying large sums of money to online poker sites.
Nick Devine, in mitigation, said “There was a second unreal fantasy world in which he was living because he was spending large amounts of time and very large amounts of money gambling.
“It led to him running up large debts and he succumbed to what every bad gambler does, and began to chase his losses. Temptation came his way, and once he had stolen for the first time it became easier to do it again.”
