Stephen Siddell’s theft led to 16 people losing their jobs, yet the 28-year-old and his wife, Louise Siddell, 24, openly posted photos of their luxury holidays on Facebook, reported the Liverpool Echo.
Siddell worked for information service and intermediary firm Property and Land Information (PALI), where he was responsible for managing payments to and from clients.
However, Siddell cashed the invoices into his own bank account instead and started stealing from the company less than three weeks after joining it.
Suspicion arose when Siddell’s bank noticed that large sums of cash were flowing into his account, despite his annual salary being no more than £15,000.
However, he dishonestly told the bank that he was earning ‘uncapped commission’ to justify the large sums of cash. He also started depositing some of the money into his wife’s account.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that, while Siddell and his wife led their lavish lifestyle, his fraud forced his employers to lay off two-thirds of their workforce.
PALI is still in danger of collapsing and the directors have had to invest £100,000 of their own cash to save it.
Director of the firm, Nick Small, told Liverpool Crown Court how he had to use some of his retirement savings to help revive the business, following Siddell’s theft.
Small said: “Stephen and his wife were boasting of their ‘new-found wealth’ on Facebook, posting photographs of themselves lying beside infinity pools at their six-bedroom villa in Cyprus.
“One thing which still haunts me is when Louise posted “because we’re worth it’ when boasting about a luxury item they had bought. This phrase makes me so angry.”
Judge Nigel Gilmour, QC, said: “I have read your Facebook entries which cover the period while you were enjoying the fruits of your criminal behaviour. They make deeply unattractive reading, boasting of your luxury on holiday in Cyprus.”
He added: “I have no doubt at all, Louise Siddell, you demonstrated to all and sundry, including your husband, that you liked the new spending power you had.
“Your husband was keen to satisfy your love for material goods.”
Siddell pleaded guilty in at Liverpool Crown Court to theft and three fraud offences.
Louise Siddell pleaded guilty to money laundering and was jailed for six months, receiving a shortened jail term due to her being pregnant.
