Paul Bicknell, of Stockton Road, stole £200,000 of computer equipment from Rock Computers. He admitted nine charges of theft and one of burgling the company's premises.

But a judge heard this week the 24-year-old has no assets after spending the money gambling online and hiring expensive cars.
Recorder David Pittaway QC made a nominal order that £1 should be confiscated from Bicknell as the proceeds of his crime, meaning any assets that come to light in the future can be confiscated.

Bicknell had been taken on by the firm when he was just 16 and had become head of sales.

In 2005 he became the main contact for CFA Trading who found him "helpful and always willing to assist" with their purchase of computer parts and equipment.

The company paid by credit card and in 2006 they became concerned their payments were going through the accounts of forecourt garages rather than into Rock's account.

They noticed Bicknell was driving prestigious cars such as Aston Martins and Porsches but accepted his explanation that the Rock system was down.

Bicknell began gambling online, often late into the night, and began turning up late for work or not going in at all, once saying he had been the wake of his grandfather who was actually still alive.

He explained his expensive lifestyle by saying he was adopted and that his real mother, who lived in the US and was an heiress, was sending him money. After being confronted in July last year, Bicknell resigned from Rock Computers.

The next month he let himself in to the Rock Computers warehouse and stole computers worth £11,497 which he sold. The total loss to Rock was £220,000 minus the computers which have been returned by CFA.

When he was arrested officers found he had been paying large sums of money to online poker sites. His solicitor Nick Devine said Bicknell had been living in "something of a fantasy and unreal world" and making up tales about his background.

He said: "There was a second unreal world in which he was living because he was spending large amounts of time and very large amounts of money online gambling.

"It led to him running up large debts and he succumbed to what every bad gambler does, and began to chose his losses.

"The temptation came his way, and once had broken the ice and stolen for the first time it became easier to do it again and again and again."