Paralegal addicted to gambling stole £438k from law firm

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A paralegal who was addicted to gambling has been jailed for stealing £438,000 from a law firm. Paul Young, 38, from Middleton, simply directed interim payments intended for innocent victims of road crashes into his bank accounts.

A court heard the victim of his fraud was his Manchester-based employer Berrymans Lace Mawer (BLM), which specialises in defending motoring claims on behalf of insurance companies.

Young, a father-of-two who earned £24,500-a-year as a paralegal at the firm's 'volume motor team' in Manchester city centre, was caught making one payment to the wrong payee but bosses didn't realise it was his account and dismissed it as a 'simple error'.

It meant he could continue to defraud his employer, taking advantage of 'flaws in their system', a court was told. READ MORE: Airport 'nightmare' as Manchester passengers find bags scattered across floor He joined the firm in January 2016 and on his CV said he had worked 'generally in the industry' but neglected to mention he had worked for another company, Pro-Law, the court heard.