Halesowen club treasurer in £37,000 con ordered to pay just £1

A disgraced accountant who plundered £37,000 from a Black Country club where he was the treasurer has been ordered to pay back just £1.

Trained accountant David Crowley left the private Shenstone Club in Halesowen on the brink of financial ruin with just £31 in a bank account that had held £79,000 when he was appointed to the post four years earlier.

Crowley, aged 65, of Milestone Croft, Colley Gate, Cradley, also a former president of the club, shelled out £1,600 of the stolen money on a holiday and spent £4,000 paying off a loan on his car, while a further £3,000 went settling his mobile phone bill.

At a proceeds of crime hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court, Judge Michael Dudley made a confiscation order in the nominal sum of £1. It means the case can be reviewed at any time if Crowley comes into money.

Members of the club today branded the confiscation order a disgrace, adding: "He got off so lightly."

At Wolverhampton Crown Court in April Crowley was given a 51-week prison sentence suspended under supervision for two years along with a 12-week curfew.

Yesterday's proceeds of crime hearing was told that he had benefited by £37,090.87 from the offences but was not in a position to pay the money back.