The Stage

ATG box office manager and assistant avoid jail after £24,000 false accounting

Published Tuesday 3 February 2009 at 16:35 by Lalayn Baluch

A West End box office manager who helped steal £24,000 from the Ambassador Theatre Group’s Comedy Theatre has avoided jail.

Duncan Gillies, 54, from Sydenham in south-east London, and his 36-year-old assistant Marke White-Brew spent more than a year making money on refunds, discounts and complimentary ticket offers.

The pair were discovered when an auditor found a number of negative cash payments in the venue’s accounts.

Gillies admitted false accounting at Southwark Crown Court. He was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to do 180 hours unpaid work and pay £10,000 compensation.

Passing the sentence, Judge Michael Gledhill QC said: “You helped yourself to money paid to you as manager of that box office for tickets. The customers weren’t the losers because they retained their tickets and saw the production they booked.

“It was your employer who did not see the money - you put it into your pocket.”

Michael Atkinson, prosecuting, said that the defendant’s partner in crime and assistant box office manager White-Brew was dealt with last year. He also admitted false accounting and was given community and unpaid work orders.

David Blyth, ATG operations and development director told The Stage: “The Ambassador Theatre Group is not concerned about security at the Comedy Theatre or any of our venues. Special systems are now in place to ensure that this kind of incident won’t happen again.

“ATG operates a zero tolerance approach to criminal activity and the outcome of the case is what was expected.”

Earlier this month, Paul Coxwell, a 24-year-old producer who tried to put on top West End shows by making false claims for more than £500,000 in VAT, was jailed for nine months by Kingston Crown Court.

Coxwell, of High Wycombe, who planned to use stars such as Eddie Murphy, Derek Jacobi and Ronnie Corbett, admitted eight offences committed over a 15-month period.

High profile fraud cases:

• June 2005 - the Royal Opera House was forced to rename its Vilar Hall and Vilar Young Artists Programme, after it emerged that millionaire and philanthropist Alberto Vilar was facing fraud charges in the US. He was tried and convicted in November 2006 on charges of money laundering and fraud.
• May 1998 - Theatre producers Michael Fontain and Simon Ellingham are extradited from Spain to the UK, and convicted of fraud and sentenced to nine months by a court in Cambridge. They walked free as the judge decided that the seven months they had already spent in a Spanish jail was enough.
• January 1994 - John Sanderson, an accountant at Sheffield Theatres, was found guilty of stealing almost £500,000 by Sheffield Crown Court - just a decade after being convicted of fraud by Huddersfield Crown Court.
• July 1987 - Five Criterion Theatre employees were sentenced after admitting their part in a conspiracy which robbed the Maybox group of more than £50,000. Richard Breed was given a six-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, while his four co-defendents received lesser sentences.