A Vodafone worker who ordered iPhone 10s be sent to his home before selling them on was handed a jail sentence yesterday.
Shane Larkin, 25, used his position as a sales advisor to defraud the firm of £58,000.
He was ordered to surrender himself to prison staff at Laganside Court on Thursday, when he will be taken to Maghaberry to start a ten-month prison sentence.
From Eskdale Gardens in North Belfast, the father-of-one appeared at a remote hearing of Belfast Crown Court via a videolink with his solicitor’s office.
He admitted a single charge of fraud by abuse of position, which he carried out from April 30 to September 17, 2018.
Larkin was employed as a sales advisor with a telecoms company based in South Belfast and his offending emerged when the director made a complaint to police.
Over a five-month period, Larkin defrauded the company by ordering replacement phones for customers which he sent to either his own address or his grandmother’s, and which he then sold on.
The phones in question were iPhone 10s which cost £1,000 each. None were recovered, the fraud amounted to £58,000 and the cost of the loss was incurred by Vodafone.
During a disciplinary meeting held in September 2018, Larkin admitted the fraud. When he was later interviewed by police, despite his admissions to his employers he declined to answer any questions about his actions.
Judge Neil Rafferty QC said that after reading reports submitted on behalf of Larkin, there was a suggestion that the period of offending “coincided with a cocaine dependence” and that the money was used for drugs.
Turning to the offence, the Judge said that around ten to 11 phones were ordered every month and that Larkin abused his position by making 58 individual fraudulent actions.
Judge Rafferty told Larkin “the minimum sentence I can impose is ten months immediate custody” and ordered that he surrender himself at court this Thursday.
