Manager stole £20k from wildlife charity to fund gambling habit

A manager who stole thousands of pounds from a wildlife charity to fund his gambling habit has been given a two-year suspended sentence.

Stephen Street, who worked as a retail trading manager at Washington Wetland Trust for five years, confessed to stealing £19,365 in cash, which he took in £200 bundles between February 2023 and June 2024. But he claimed to be “shocked” to discover that he had stolen a total of £19,365, believing it had been around £5,000.

The 47-year-old has been ordered to pay back the embezzled amount in full and given a community sentence of 250 hours unpaid work.

Vicious cycle

The court was told that Street’s theft caused “reputational harm” to the charity, which works to restore wetland habitats, and affected its ability to recruit staff.

Street said that he was struggling with his gambling habit during the illness and death of his father, and claimed that he had chased his losses in an effort to recoup his debts and replace the stolen money.

He has now reportedly taken action to tackle his gambling problem, and family members have helped him raise enough money to recompense the charity for its losses.

Millions of people

The Gambling Commission’s 2025 annual survey on gambling harm revealed that almost half of adults in Britain gambled in September.

While it claimed that the increase in problem gambling was “statistically stable”, Will Prochaska, the Director of the Coalition to End Gambling Ads, disagreed.

He stated: “The Gambling Commission releases these statistics as if nothing is wrong. But there’s something very wrong when over a million people have a gambling problem and millions more are being harmed.

“Families up and down the country are being torn apart to deliver profits for big gambling corporations. If we’re serious about addressing this crisis, we must start by banning gambling advertising.”