A SOUTH Cumbria fraudster who took money from nine people on the promise of high value items which he never supplied has been sentenced by a judge.
Carlisle Crown Court heard Samuel Gordon Russell, 28, turned to crime while battling drink and gambling problems during the middle of last year.
Russell contacted some people he knew while working as the deputy manager of an Ambleside outdoor clothing store, offering to supply products at staff discount. He also offered items, including £100 GPS computers and expensive bike wheels, to others using Facebook selling sites.
He took payments from nine different buyers, none of whom received the goods they had ordered as Russell carried out a scam which totalled almost £2,500.
Russell was sentenced today (TUES) after he admitted nine fraud charges arising out of criminal conduct between April and August last year. The court heard he had previously been punished by South Cumbria magistrates in December for using a company credit card while employed at the same Lakes shop to splash out almost £2,000 on a Manchester spending spree last July.
Recorder Eric Lamb noted that Russell had been at a “particularly low ebb” during that time having “fallen prey” to alcohol and gambling addictions.
But in a heartfelt letter to the court, his parents had described a subsequent positive change in the defendant, who was now working for his father and free of both drink and betting.
Concluding that the fraud and previously dealt with theft offences amounted to “one global event”, the judge imposed a two-year community order which will run alongside the punishment he was given in December. It means Russell, of Fir Tree Rise, Kendal, must complete a 25-day rehabilitation requirement and 300 hours’ unpaid work.
