JAILED: Bookie who stole £76k from Ladbrokes gets two years

Robert Hill had several previous convictions, including one for robbery, when offered work by Ladbrokes, it emerged at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Recorder David Mason QC said: "His last conviction for dishonesty was 22 years ago which, no doubt, was how he managed to obtain the job in the first place."

The defendant, aged 52, had worked for the company for 10 years and had been promoted to manage its branch in Church Street, Bilston before bosses launched an investigation on December 21, 2013.

• MORE: Bookie faces jail after bogus betting payouts netted £76,000

It revealed he had pocketed 82 bogus payouts in eight months after realising the bar code on betting slips from rival bookmakers confused the computer, which recorded winnings from fixed odds betting terminals.

This allowed him to take money without the loss being detected.

Successful punters playing games on the electronic slot machines got receipts with a bar code. These were scanned on a terminal at the counter to show how much had been won and allow this amount to be withdrawn from the till.

If the link between the slot machine and the till broke down staff could override the system and manually make an 'offline' payment of the sum indicated on the receipt.

Hill discovered that by scanning the bar code of a betting slip issued by a rival bookmaker he could trigger a computer malfunction that let him override the system and allow him to determine the size of a non-existent win.

The loss was not recorded because the computer saw the transaction as an authorised payment – so the branch manager regularly paid himself fake wins of up to £1,300-a-time when working alone in the shop. The racket continued from April 15 to December 19, 2013 before being discovered.

The defendant was taken to a meeting with Ladbrokes security and safety officer Jeanette Cheetham who explained: "He told me 'I am not staying here to be called a thief,' threw the shop keys onto the desk and stormed out. I called the police."

Hill from Hughes Avenue, Bradmore was arrested at his home on January 10, 2014 and denied stealing the money.

He was convicted of theft last week following a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court and had been remanded on bail for sentence.

Mr Christopher O'Gorman, defending, said: "To his credit, he spent nine or 10 years as a good, loyal law abiding employee of Ladbrokes but I cannot answer the question of where the money has gone."