Bolton fraudster who stole thousands and secretly filmed women caught out by ex-wife

A fraudster who stole thousands of pounds from a hire company was caught out after his ex-wife found fake invoices and secret recordings of women.

Gareth Edwards, 41, has been sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years, after stealing more than £17,000 from Big Chief Tipis in Bolton.

Edwards, who served as the operations manager for the company, falsified invoices and paid the fees to himself while earning approximately £30,000 per year.

Prosecutor Helena Williams told Minshull Street Crown Court that Edwards was in charge of recruiting, training and running the operations after he started the role in May 2018.

He suggested that the team work on a freelance basis before suggesting that invoices were sent to him directly.

The fraud was discovered when an accountant at the company noticed discrepancies in the accounts and Edwards provided a variety of explanations for the missing funds.

"In earlier 2019, the defendant separated from his wife and moved out of the family home," Ms Williams said.

"They agreed to put the house up for sale and during the process of sorting through her belongings, she came across some screwed-up invoices from Big Chief Tipis."

Some of the invoices had different names on, but each included bank account numbers attributed to Edwards.

After contacting some of the people who were named, they stated they had never received the fee, and one stated he had never worked with the company.

In a victim impact statement, the former managing director of the family-run company said it was a ‘close knit team’ who she trusted complicity.

"He (Edwards) totally took advantage of the trust we placed in him. It was devastating to find out he was stealing.

"The team were incredibly upset when I had to tell them."

In addition to the fraud charges, Edwards also admitted to making indecent images and voyeurism.

The court heard that Edwards’ ex-wife found recordings on a memory stick which showed he had been secretly filming a young girl and a woman for his own sexual gratification.

In a statement, one of the victims said she felt her privacy had been violated and she had suffered with her mental health. And the other victim said she could no longer trust people, specifically men.

Defending, Huw Edwards said his client had suffered from a stroke within the last year, which had caused a delay in the case. He also said that his client had no previous convictions.

A pre-sentence report prepared by the probation service stated he had ‘genuine contrite and remorse’.

Gareth Edwards has been ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work and 30 days of rehabilitation activity requirements, as well as being added to the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years and being subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years.