Greedy accountant who stole more than £330k splashed out on Range Rover and Blackpool holiday home

A greedy accountant who stole more than £330,000 from his employers and splashed out on a Range Rover and a holiday home has been locked up. Laurence Hearldon, 39, was sacked from his position as a senior managing clerk at a ‘successful’ Cheetham Hill based wholesale fashion company when his crime was discovered.

Hearldon was a ‘liked’ and ‘trusted’ employee with Sanjeev 1979 Ltd, but he had secretly siphoned off the firm’s funds into his own accounts for nearly three years. The father from Salford said he had begun making the fraudulent transactions after falling into debt.

But Manchester Crown Court heard that he had bought a Range Rover and a ‘holiday home’ in Blackpool. "These purchases prove that the only explanation for your offending is greed,” Judge Sarah Johnston told him.

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"I'm also entirely satisfied from everything that I have read and heard that the majority of your offending was to provide a lifestyle beyond your means.” Hearldon was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to an offence of committing fraud by abusing his position.

"You were liked and you were trusted,” the judge continued. "You have lost your good character by virtue of this offence. You have let your family down very badly.”

Prosecuting, William Donnelly said Hearldon joined the firm in May 2014. “By all accounts he was viewed as a popular and diligent member of the accounting department,” he said. The court heard that by August 2021 he had been promoted to the role of senior managing clerk, a position which involved him in ‘all areas of the company’s financial affairs’.

Mr Donnelly said the firm’s turnover was