Red Star is hit by fraud
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• A former Red Star road operations manager has been jailed after exploiting lax accounting procedures at the company and milking it of £150,000.
But Judge Gerald Butler said Kevin McAvan's 30-month sentence was a reduced term because he agreed to give evidence at any subsequent trials that may arise. McAvan provided a 15-page witness statement, He was able to pull off the fraud by creating a fictitious company called MCS and billing Red Star headquarters in Islington, north London, with 13 invoices over an eight-month period for respraying work on non-existent vehicles.
McAvan's invoices started in April 1990 and ranged from £6,300 to £25,000. All invoices were authorised for payment by McAvan and another certifying officer.
After stealing the cash McAvan, 36, left his £20,000-ayear job at the British Rail parcels company and set up his own
luxury chauffeur car hire service, bought a Rolls Royce, went on holidays and bought lavish furniture. "At the end only £6,000 was found in his building society," said Michael Daiches, prosecuting last week at Southwark Crown Court.
Daiches told the court: "The accounting procedures at Red Star were extremely lax and McAvan realised there was no system at all for checking invoices presented for payment.
McAvan resigned in December 1990 and five months later police went to his home to investigate the suspected theft of a BR fax machine. "When they searched his home they realised his lifestyle was a lot better than somebody on £20,000 a year," said Daiches and then McAvan confessed, said Daiches.