A “greedy” father-of-two tricked his employer out of £200,000 to squander on luxuries – including a hot tub from Amazon – in an elaborate hoax.
Benjamin Cullen, of Herne Bay, drained his boss’s credit cards to make more than 500 purchases from the online retailer as part of the scam.
Rattan furniture, a gazebo, video games, gin and a nose wax kit were some of the items the 43-year-old frittered his ill-gotten gains on.
The fraudster was jailed for four years and nine months on Wednesday at Canterbury Crown Court.
Blaze Signs in Broadstairs hired Cullen in 2016 to oversee the running of its IT department, the court heard.
Entrusted with the firm’s finances by 2018, including his CEO’s American Express card, Cullen longed for the high-life his £37,000 salary could ill-afford.
By 2020, he would leave one of the UK’s largest sign-makers financially crippled, after doctoring dozens of invoices payable to fake firms which he assembled.
Peter Forbes, prosecuting, told how Cullen paid 10 invoices worth £24,000 from Peartree Computing, where he was the director, between 2018-2020.
Meanwhile, the IT specialist created domain host firm GFI Mailer, then authorised £90,000 worth of payments from Blaze’s budget to the company.
He then used Clive Knight’s company card to make some 527…
