Garry McNeil admitted embezzling £20,000 (Image: Pressteam)

Scots call centre boss took money from dead customers and sent cash to work pal

Garry McNeil diverted compensation payments to his own bank account and the account of colleague David Cairns.

by · Daily Record

A call centre boss who ran a £20,000 scam that saw him pocket payments from dead British Gas customers has dodged jail. Garry McNeil, 38, used his senior role to divert customer compensation payments of £500 to his own bank.

He pinpointed dormant accounts which were not in use if the customer had passed away or left the company. McNeil changed the bank details and trousered the cash between May and September 2018.

He also forwarded money to an account used by his colleague David Cairns, 44. The scam was uncovered after bosses at the call centre in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, were alerted and police were called in. Suspicion had fallen on a female worker before scheming McNeil became the focus of the probe and he was suspended.

David Cairns (pictured) had money forwarded to his account by McNeil (Image: Pressteam)

McNeil, of Glasgow, appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted a single charge of embezzling £20,000. Cairns, of Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, pled guilty to acquiring £8,000 under proceeds of crime legislation.

Sheriff John Hamilton KC put McNeil under supervision for 18 months, ordered him to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work and tagged him for six months. Cairns, who previously served in the Royal Marines, was told to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and put under supervision for a year.

Depute fiscal Rebecca Clark said: "Mr McNeil worked as a customer service manager with British Gas and the team he was in was customer relations dealing with complaints. In his role as manager, he had authorisation to give compensation credits to the value of up to £500 without having to seek further authorisation.

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"Mr McNeil used his own log in password as well as that of an unknown employee and he would go into customer accounts that were no longer active, no longer customers or had passed away. He would change customer bank details to reflect either his own bank account or that of David Cairns. He would then apply for customer compensation credits of up to £500, thereby effectively paying himself the money."

Andy Iles, defending O'Neil, said: "He finds himself in real jeopardy because this is a very serious matter and involves a very large amount of money. Quite clearly there requires to be a punishment for this but it's my submission that this could be done without the need for him to be placed into custody."

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Craig Broadley, defending Cairns, said: "He accepts responsibility and culpability for this offence and this has been a sobering lesson for him."

Sheriff Hamilton told McNeil: "This is a serious matter and you pled guilty to embezzling £20,000 by setting up a scheme to exploit a loophole and you were the driving force behind this. A custodial sentence is justifiable but I'm going to stop short of that." He told Cairns: "Your involvement was somewhat lower and you were a lesser player."

McNeil had originally faced claims he had embezzled £56,739 while Cairns had been accused of holding £29,455 of dirty money. Three other men and a woman had not guilty pleas accepted by prosecutors.

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