A DISGRACED former bank manager given a chance to start again by a family-run Warwickshire coach firm repaid their trust in him by returning to his old ways.
And even paying back every penny of the £43,000 he stole from Henley based Johnsons Coach Company, plus interest, was not enough to save thieving Martin Beevers from prison.
The 65-year-old, of Pillerton Hersey, near Warwick, was jailed for two years by a judge at Warwick Crown Court after pleading guilty to stealing from the firm over a three-year period.
Prosecutor William Dudley said in 1994 Beevers had been jailed for 18 months for stealing £140,000 from the Barclays Bank branch in Edgbaston, Birmingham, where he was the manager at the time.
Despite that, in 1998 the directors of Johnsons Coaches were prepared to given him a job in the accounts department, where he built up a good reputation and quickly rose to become financial controller.
Directors John and Peter Johnson described Beevers as being ‘a key figure,’ who was at the heart of the company.
But in August last year an audit carried out while he was on holiday flagged up an unaccounted deficiency, and it was found that £15,000 from the company’s cash reserve account was unaccounted for.
An internal investigation revealed between March and June 2016, there had been five transfers into Beevers’ personal bank account or to his credit card.
When Beevers was confronted on his return, he accepted taking the money, but claimed to have paid it back.
He had not, and after he resigned, he sent an email to John Johnson confessing he had stolen yet more money by transferring another £15,000 from the company’s bonus deposit account – but still not admitting the extent of his thefts.
Following further investigations it emerged he had stolen a total of £43,379 – and Mr Dudley said Beevers had since repaid the full amount plus a sum of interest.
Simon Hunka, defending, said: “It began with an intention to take a little bit and, having got away with it, it spiralled out of control.”
Jailing Beevers, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC said: “In 1994 you were a bank manager, and £140,000 was taken by you, and you served a prison sentence. That should have been a warning to you that lasted for the whole of your life.
“Your new employers gave you a chance, they accepted your assertions that you had learned your lesson.
“This was a breach of a high degree of trust, and there was significant planning.”
