Thieving Gedling Borough Council worker stole almost £1m then told police he 'would have carried on'

Alan Doig stole the equivalent of 6% of the council's entire budget for one year

A senior accountant at Gedling Borough Council who stole almost £1m of taxpayers' money to fund his gambling addiction, has been jailed for five years. Nottingham Crown Court heard how over nearly 20 years, Alan Doig transferred £934,343.30 of money meant to pay for public services into his own bank accounts.

The 57-year-old accountant massaged figures relating to the council’s employee car loan scheme to syphon cash to himself, by raising fake invoices, fake credit notes and moving money around different accounts to avoid detection. And after he was arrested, he admitted had he not been caught he would have carried on his illegal enterprise.

Jailing the defendant, Judge Nirmal Shant KC said: “You gained knowledge and expertise but what you did with that knowledge and expertise was to manipulate the system for your own gain. Your theft has had a real impact on each of the residents who live in the borough. You stole from them and squandered their money on gambling.

“Between 2002 and 2022, you made 86 fraudulent transactions to obtain just under £1m. You were in a posiiton of trust and responsibility and you abused that.”

Alan Murphy, prosecuting, said Doig, of Daybrook, was employed by the council between 1985 and his dismissal in 2022 and was seen as “a popular and credible” employee. He said he rose to the position of senior accountant where he was responsible for the IT system for payroll and payments.

The prosecutor said: “These two counts relate to a course of conduct over 19 years during which the defendant abused his position as a senior accountant at Gedling Borough Council to make fraudulent payments to himself.” Mr Murphy said as part of his role the defendant had access to payments made to a car loan scheme for employees. He said the scheme allows employees to obtain a loan from the council to purchase a vehicle and repay the loan via deductions from salary.

He said an accounts assistant ran a report on the scheme in 2022 and found payment discrepancies pointing towards Doig. He said: “In addition, a search of the defendant’s desk at work found a whole host of documents used in this fraud. These include false payment vouchers for car loans; pictures of cars and sale details used to facilitate the fraudulent car loans; documents setting out false sundry debtor details to be raised and related false credit notes; false loan cancellation documents used to falsely reconcile accounts; and multiple falsely competed car loan application forms with fraudulently entered signatures.

“The council invited the defendant to attend a disciplinary hearing in September 2022. He initially declined but did send an email on September 13, 2022 to the investigator in which he accepted the findings, offered no excuses but did say he was addicted to gambling. He said he would comply with further investigations including those of the police.”

Mr Murphy said Doig was arrested and in interview laid bare his addiction to gambling. He said: “He said he had been gambling since he was 17, but initially it was at the horses or the casino and he didn’t gamble anything he couldn’t afford to. His problems had started after his wife had lost some money gambling and he had had to pay her debt. He had told her it was a waste of money but then created an online account of his own and won £12,000 from what he called ‘slots’.

“From then on he described it ‘as a constant, every single night’. It was all he thought about, day in and day out. He opened multiple online accounts to avoid betting company restrictions and once he’d used up his salary and savings he started committing fraud, chasing his losses. He did say though that he always paid his mortgage and his bills, so his gambling monies came out of the rest of his income.

“He said had been to Gamblers Anonymous twice but in itself that hadn’t done anything to stop him gambling. He accepted that if he hadn’t been caught he would have carried on, thinking he would have won all the money back. He said every penny had been spent on gambling.”

Doig, of Bedale Road, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position and obtaining money transfer by deception. He has no previous convictions of any kind. Mr Murphy read out a business impact statement made by Mike Hill, on behalf of the council and the defendant’s former employees. He said:”He was an expert and used his position to abuse the system. The money he stole would have been 6% of the council’s 2024-2025 budget. This has had an impact on every single resident in the borough.

“On an average of more than £46,000 per annum, that could have employed extra street cleaners, bin collectors or gardeners who would have made a real difference to the borough. The fact this was portrayed during an era of openness is truly shocking to members of staff who worked with Alan on a daily basis and they are struggling to come to terms with what he has done. Some members of staff also have a feeling of self-blame that they did not find out about this sooner.”

Roger Wilson, mitigating, said his client was “not a fool who recognised that many people have suffered including the residents of Gedling”. He said: “He was a valued and trusted employee who was good at his job. He had an addiction he spoke to nobody about, kept it to himself and that had led him here.

“It was a huge sum of money but he did not use any of it to live a lavish lifestyle and instead lived a modest one. He was actually relieved he was finally investigated and arrested. In his own letter, he explains that he’s truly embarrassed and ashamed at what he’s done, he has let down so many people. He hoped one big win could sort out the financial troubles he found himself in.”

A Proceed of Crime Act hearing, which could see Doig stripped of any assets, will take place on a future date.

Gedling Borough Council’s Chief Executive Mike Hill said: “Our organisation is in shock that we are the victims of a crime carried out by a long-serving employee, who was in a position of trust, and who abused the system to commit fraud on such a scale. This was a criminal act and the sentencing reflects the crime and we believe that justice has been served.

"Only someone with key insider knowledge could have done this, and we would not have been able to prevent this from happening. We had numerous checks and controls in place, we were subjected to regular and thorough audits of processes and procedures. It was only when legislation changes came in that required new checks, as well as his changes in behaviour, that the fraud was found.

"We are confident that this was an isolated incident by a man with a serious problem. He stole public money, which could have been used to pay for essential services and we want to reassure the public that the money will be recuperated in full, and we have new systems in place to prevent this from happening in the future. We have a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and all of our staff are aware of this."