KPMG director earning £100,000 falsely claimed £45,000 in expenses to fund gambling addiction and spiralling debts

• Brian Chapman made more than £100,000 a year as a director at KPMG
• But prosecutors say he lost £330 a month gambling and was £90,000 in debt
• He is accused of double and triple-claiming expenses to fund his habit
• The 55-year-old, from Glasgow, denies one count of fraud at the Old Bailey
  

By Richard Spillett

Published: 09:38 EST, 1 April 2014 | Updated: 11:10 EST, 1 April 2014

Brian Chapman is accused of falsely claiming around £45,000 in expenses whilst he was a director at accountants KPMG

A director at top accountancy firm KPMG falsely claimed nearly £45,000 in expenses to feed a gambling habit, a court has heard.

Management consultant Brian Chapman, 55, was struggling to maintain payments towards his mortgage and 12 credit cards at the time of the fraud, it is claimed.

Although he was earning a gross annual salary of more than £100,000, the Old Bailey was told he had £90,000 debts and lost an average of £330 a month gambling.

Chapman allegedly double and triple-claimed the same expenses, including flights, hotels and mobile phone bills.

His scam lasted for more than five years until KPMG's risk and control team launched an investigation in 2012, the court heard.

Prosecutor Jane Osborne told the court: 'Mr Chapman was a consultant working for KPMG at director level in their financial services sector.

'Travelling was frequently part of that role and he would legitimately incur substantial expenses which had to be claimed back.

'Those expenses were not quite as substantial as those that he claimed for and over the course of a five year period there were almost £45,000 of expenses that he claimed that were not in fact owed to him.

'He did that deliberately, no doubt because at the time his personal financial circumstances were characterised by mounting and very substantial debt.'

Miss Osborne said that KPMG's expenses system was at that time run on trust.

Chapman was given a corporate American Express charge card but was also allowed to claim back 'out of pocket' expenses backed up with a receipt.

Prosecutors say Chapman double and triple-claimed money for flights, hotels and mobile phone bills while at KMPG, whose headquarters are in London's Canary Wharf. He denies fraud

Miss Osborne said: 'What he was doing was quite simple. When an expense was incurred by him he would claim that expense but sometimes he would claim that same expense not once but twice and sometimes three times.

'KPMG has paid off the debt on the Amex card but also transferred money to Mr Chapman ensuring that he benefited personally.

'If it was small sums of money perhaps it could have been done without noticing, but on occasion it was thousands of pounds paid into his bank account.'

Chapman's expenses were first investigated when he was identified as one of the company's top 50 debtors to Vodafone, the court heard.

Although he had already claimed back some of the bills as expenses, the money had not been passed on to the phone company.

Chapman then put the whole amount on his corporate charge card, resulting in double claiming, jurors heard.

The case was passed to the City of London Police and it emerged that Chapman had 12 credit cards with a debt totalling £90,000 in October 2007, increasing to £94,000 in October 2011.

'He had also been running an online gambling account with Betfair, betting on a daily basis,' said Miss Osborne.

'He lost more than he won and his monthly loss averaged about £330.'

Chapman received a net salary of around £5,500 a month but virtually the whole amount was spent paying his mortgage, his gambling and the monthly credit card minimum payment, it is claimed.

Chapman, of Binniehill Road, Cumbernauld, Glasgow, denies a single count of fraud. The trial continues.

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