Online gambling site, Betfred, has been made to pay £800,000 in compensation after an accountant gambled large sums of money with the firm that he had stolen from his employer, following a licence review from the Gambling Commission
Betfred was criticised by the Gambling Commission over its failure in its anti-money laundering and social responsibility policies, following an investigation into the company’s behaviour towards accountant, Matthew Stevens.
Stevens was sentenced to three years and four months in January 2016, at Leeds Crown Court, after being found guilty of stealing £850,000 from his boss who hired him as an in-house accountant for two of his businesses, Core Telecommunications and Norman Bar in Leeds.
Under the terms of the settlement, £443,000 will be paid to the victims of the criminal activities. A further £344,500 will be paid, in lieu of a financial penalty, to socially responsible causes, agreed with the commission. Betfred will also meet the Gambling Commission’s investigation costs of £30,000.
Stevens was a customer with Betfred between 2013 and 2015. He was considered to be a VIP player and was in its top 5% of customers in terms of spend and profit.
According to the Gambling Commission’s report, Betfred staff wrongly believed that Stevens was a professional gambler and was a company director but failed to check the source of his income.
Steven’s provided Betfred with a bank statement showing four payments, from his employer, of £14,792 which he had tried to delete, but no further questions were asked.
Richard Watson, programme director at the Gambling Commission, said: ‘We identified a number of weaknesses in the anti-money laundering and social responsibility controls used by Betfred. The penalty package of over £800,000 reflects these failures.’
A Betfred spokesman has said: ‘We have greatly strengthened our policies and will continue to review and update our anti-money laundering and social responsibility procedures. Betfred remains fully committed to working with the Gambling Commission and the rest of the industry to strengthen existing controls. Responsible gambling is at the very heart of our business.’
The Gambling Commission has begun a review of its enforcement policies and practices which includes plans to engage operators and stakeholders in the autumn.
The report of the investigation into Betfred is here.
