A DESPERATE Braunston man chanced his luck defrauded an employment agency out of more than £500 for work he didn’t do.
Kieran Mark Redhead was paid £504 for 72 hours he wrongly claimed for after he received a call from the agency asking for his timesheet, a court heard.
“Very foolishly he thought ‘if they think I have been at work, maybe I can get away with this’.
“At the time he was actually desperate for money. He knew he was not entitled to it. He fully accepts he needs to be punished,” solicitor Catherine Brockway told magistrates.
Twenty-six-year-old Redhead, of Eastfields Road, Braunston, appeared before Nuneaton magistrates on Tuesday (October 30) and admitted committing fraud on June 26 by making a false representation that he had worked at Castle Mound Way, Central Park, Rugby, to gain £504 for himself.
Prosecutor Naila Iqbal said Redhead worked for The Best Connection, of Nuneaton, which provided staff on a short-term basis.
“On the weeks commencing the 16th and the 23rd of April this year Mr Redhead claimed to have worked a total of 72 hours. They paid him £504. When they tried to claim the money back they realised Mr Redhead had not worked for those two weeks.
“He said he is currently unemployed and not in a position to repay the money, and he knew what he did was wrong.”
Miss Iqbal said Redhead had 21 convictions for 43 offences, including for theft and similar matters.
He was last before court in August for taking a vehicle without consent, driving without insurance and other than in accordance with a licence, and given a community order and unpaid work.
Mitigating, Miss Brockway said her client, who has a partner and children, had been working for the agency since November 2011.
“It was only at the very tail end of his employment that this offence occurred.”
Miss Brockway said Redhead, who used to be “in and out” of work with the agency, received a call querying the whereabouts of his timesheet – and this led to the fraud.
Magistrates fined Redhead £50, with £15 victim surcharge, and told him to pay £504 compensation to The Best Connection agency.