Woman convicted of £2.4m gambling fraud

A woman has been sentenced to five years in jail after pleading guilty to stealing more than two million pounds from her workplace to continue gambling.

Jemma Lewis was an accountant for a group of companies in Newport, but she had a gambling problem, and used her position to process payments to herself rather than to third parties.

Gambling Commission figures estimate around 2.5 per cent of the adult population (approximately 1.3 million people) in Britain experience the highest level of gambling-related harm, while a further 3.5 per cent are thought to be ‘at moderate risk’ of gambling harm.

Countless affected

Lewis’s employer, James Davies, noted that the fraud had “affected the lives of countless people”.

Former Director Mark Cotter explained how he took time off due to stress over the situation, saying: “I felt forced to leave the company that I had spent a lot of my life trying to build”.

Lewis’s lawyer Neil Corre stated that the accountant, who was already well-paid, did not gamble in order to win money, but simply to continue gambling. She had been gambling for 20 years at the time of her arrest, but now says she has been free of the addiction for more than a year.

Corre told the court: “She has lost her job, her home and she may lose her liberty, but her moral compass has been restored.”

Cliff of addiction

A former gambler in the Republic of Ireland, who was convicted for stealing €1.75 million to fund his gambling habit, is now raising awareness in schools about gambling harms.

Tony O’Reilly said: “Having lived through gambling addiction, I know how easily it can trap young people. Education and awareness are vital to stop young people from falling off the cliff of addiction like I did.”

Noting the impact of gambling apps and websites, Tony said: “My story, it probably took about 10 years. But nowadays, I’ve been talking to clients who are in trouble after six weeks. So that’s where I think the online element has definitely added to it.”

He explained that while with one bet on the Norwegian Ladies’ Football he lost €40,000, he sees his biggest loss as time: “Time with my daughter, time with friends, family.”