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An Australian gambler has been found guilty of defrauding the company he part-owned out of $3 million to fund his gambling habit. Ladbrokes is being sued by attorneys for $5.1 million for their involvement in the customer’s activity.
Defrauded his own Company
Between December 2016 to July 2017, Jaicome Spinella who worked within the concreting firm Bauer was found to be moving money from company accounts directly into his Ladbrokes account.Spinella had full access to the company accounts and used the company’s credit card to fund his gambling habit. Over the seven-month period, Spinella made over 571 deposits into his Ladbrokes account. The company was part-owned and ran by himself, his brother, and a friend.
Company Collapse
In 2017, the company collapsed and 50 employees lost their jobs. He admitted he’d helped himself to more than $3 million of which attributed to the companies collapse.On Monday, Spinella pleaded guilty on a count of dishonesty. He has since been diagnosed with an alcohol and gambling dependency disorder. He is to be sentenced on Friday.Ladbrokes failed to prevent Spinella from defrauding the company and did not provide help with an obvious gambling addiction.
‘Groomed’
Spinella’s lawyer said internal emails between Ladbrokes staff had said “gamblers as bad as Jaicome come along once in a lifetime, so make sure we keep him” The judge went on to say the emails looked like Ladbrokes had ‘groomed’ the gambling addict stating “there does appear to be some level of interference…if not exploitation” by Ladbrokes.Mr. Spinella is facing a prison term after the sheer amount of money he stole to fund his habit. The situation escalated badly after Mr. Spinella tried to win back the money he had lost, a situation most gambling addicts find themselves in.