Dudley fraudster who stole thousands from company salary sacrifice schemes jailed

Joshua Murrell was sentenced to more than two-and-a-half years in prison after admitting guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud, seven counts of fraud by false representation and one count of possession of articles for use in fraud.

The 26-year-old, of Heathcliff Road in Dudley was sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday, with his associate 24-year-old Dominic Smith, of Kingsway in Oldbury, being given a two-year jail term, suspended for two years, for the same charges.

West Midlands Police said it had been alerted to Murrell's scam in January 2023 after a company had reported several staff reward accounts had been hacked.

An investigation had found the majority of email addresses linked to the accounts had been changed to disposable addresses with the same email provider.

All the email addresses had been accessed by the same IP address and further enquiries linked the IP address to an address in Kingswinford, where Murrell was living at the time.

Officers executed a warrant and arrested Murrell as well as seizing his mobile and laptop, with analysis of his phone showing multiple voice notes to Smith discussing their fraudulent activity.

It was also revealed that the pair had hacked multiple organisations’ salary sacrifice schemes, ordering Cycle2Work scheme vouchers and electrical items such as Xbox games and iPhones.

The force said that during the course of their hacking operation, Murrell and Smith managed gain more than £40,000.

Detective Constable Louise Watt from West Midlands Police Regional Organised Crime Unit said: “Murrell was the brains of the operation with Smith working as a sidekick to try and get away with pocketing thousands of pounds from big companies and trusts.

“However, thanks to the evidence stacked up against them and the hard work of our officers we have brought them to justice.”