A former Northern Automotive Systems employee was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of two counts of fraud in Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday January 8.

Jason Alexander, 39, from Griffithstown was arrested for abusing his position of Purchasing Manager at the company based in Gilwern and using company money to pay for personal goods and fuel.

Mr David Pugh for the prosecution told the court that the first count of fraud was for using the company fuel card for personal use, amounting to £1,911.13 from July 2012 to April 2013. The second count of fraud was for the misuse of the company credit card for personal items such as iPads, iPods, concert tickets and Kindles, amounting to £90,952.21 between October 2010 and April 2013.

The court heard that an employee at Northern Automotive Systems noticed that several fuel cards had gone missing, and upon looking into it noticed that a number of fuel payments had been made for vehicles belonging to Alexander, including a White Land Rover Freelander and a red Mini convertible. The card had also been used on fuel for a car belonging to Alexander's partner.

After speaking to Judith Evans from Keith Price Garages, the company discovered that all of the transactions had been made by Alexander, despite signatures that Alexander had forged of two fellow employees.

When the company discovered this, Alexander admitted the crime and offered to pay the money back. He was then suspended from the company and later resigned from his job.

Following this the company embarked on an internal investigation into the conduct of Alexander, where they discovered that he had also been using the company credit cards to buy products such as electronic goods and concert tickets from online retailers such as Amazon and EBay, and had submitted false names and companies on the invoices.

It was later found that Alexander had been selling the goods on to fellow employees at a reduced rate, in an act which Judge Stephen Hopkins QC claimed that Alexander described as 'some kind of philanthropic act'

Alexander was questioned by police in December 2013 and denied all of the charges, although after a five month investigation was arrested on June 12, 2014 and he admitted his guilt.

Alexander's home was searched and police found what the Judge called a 'small Aladdin's cave' containing electronic goods, keyboards and concert tickets.

The court also heard that the company itself had struggled with financial pressures of employing outside companies to help undertake their internal investigation, and the loss of man power during this time.

They also heard how many of the employees affected by being sold these goods were also left feeling stupid and stressed.

Mr Owen Williams for the defence asked the judge to take into consideration Alexander's early guilty plea and his good work ethic.

He also noted that he was only able to do these acts due to the fact that he was trusted by people and hoped that this trust would be reflected on in the judge's decision.

Judge Stephen Hopkins QC said that what Alexander had done was a 'serious breach of trust', and his attempts to hide his crimes were aggravated by his use of fake invoices and his forgery of his co-workers signatures.

The counsel and judge were in agreement that there would be no other option than a custodial sentence of between 18 months and four years' imprisonment. Alexander was given full one-third credit for his early plea and his lack of prior convictions was also taken into account, which resulted in a custodial sentence of two years.

Alexander will serve half of the sentence and remain on parole for the remainder of his sentence.

DC Glyn Mason of Gwent Police said after the sentence, "It's only right that Jason Alexander received a custodial sentence for his offences; he abused his position of trust and responsibility to defraud and steal from the company where he was a valued employee.

"Some people think crimes against businesses are victimless, however, there is always a victim when someone makes such financial gains from criminal activity."