IT manager at property firm who used company money to order phones and SIMs spared prison after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud
A Northampton man, who was working as an IT manager at a property firm when he used company money to order phones and SIM contracts, has been spared prison.
Chais Grant-Brown, of Balmoral Close, appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Friday January 16 for sentencing, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud at an earlier hearing.
The 39-year-old was charged with one count of fraud by abuse of position and one count of fraud by false representation.
According to court documents, the count of fraud by abuse of position happened between May 2022 and January 2023.
Charge details state that while working as the IT and infrastructure manager at a property firm – a role in which Grant-Brown was expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of the company - he “dishonestly abused that position intending thereby to cause loss to or to expose that person to a risk of loss by ordering contracts for SIMs and mobile phones when specifically instructed not to do so”.
Court documents state the count of fraud by false representation happened between July 2020 and December 2022, when Grant-Brown “dishonestly made a false representation, namely that he was authorised by his employer to obtain goods to be delivered to his home address and financed from the credit balance in the company’s hardware fund intending to make a gain, namely the acquisition of digital items for himself”.
Grant-Brown was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years. He was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and abide by a six-month curfew.