Former Browne Jacobson employee flogged his ink haul on eBay
A national law firm manager, who duped his employer out of more than £18,600 worth of ink cartridges, has been slapped with a 16-month suspended sentence.
Raven Subramoney — who was a national documents services manager at multi-practice firm Browne Jacobson LLP — swindled printer cartridges amounting to the value of £18,646 in 2014. Using a false audit trail to disguise what he had done, the 33-year-old would then sell the goods on eBay and pocket the cash.
According to a report in the Evening Standard, the former Browne Jacobson employee — who allegedly had a gambling habit — used his ill-gotten gains to “pay off loan sharks”.
Appearing at the Old Bailey yesterday, the court heard how Subramoney — who was based at the firm’s London office — eventually fessed up to his bosses in June 2014 and offered to pay them back.
Having been sacked by the firm, things went from bad to worse for Subramoney. The report states that, after the fraud came to light, his wife left him and he was forced to sleep on the streets and friends’ sofas having been made homeless.
Subramoney — who was barred from working in the legal sector back in December 2014 — was handed a 16-month jail term, suspended for two years. Ordering the defendant to pay Browne Jacobson £18,600 in compensation and complete 150 hours of community service, Judge Johannah Cutts QC said:
You were in a position of trust. For many months you abused that trust by ordering toners for printer models your company didn’t possess and then selling them on to others.
Commenting on yesterday’s sentencing, a spokesperson for Browne Jacobson told Legal Cheek:
Although incidents such as these are extremely rare we take any acts of theft and fraudulent activity extremely seriously. Our internal controls at the time were able to quickly identify the incidences of internal fraud which had occurred over a short period. As a result we took immediate action to dismiss the employee in question, who had at that time only been in employment for a few months, following a thorough internal investigation. We also informed the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the police who concluded that Mr Subramoney had abused his position of trust and engaged in criminal activity, resulting in a successful prosecution. His actions have had no impact on client delivery, data or monies.
This isn’t the first time a law firm employee has taken advantage of the escalating cost of printer ink.
Earlier this year, former Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co supervisor Andrew Cook was slammed by the SRA for selling the firm’s cartridges on eBay. Cook — who received £227.34 for the printer toner, after £3 was deducted in eBay fees — was eventually barred from the profession.