A FORMER consultant at Aviva in York has avoided jail after stealing £13,084 from the company over eight years.

Michael Philip Pearse, 49, cried in the dock when he was sentenced to a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, at York Crown Court.

Robert Galley, prosecuting, told the court Pearse had duplicated his expenses for hotels, travel and car parking between 2008 and the beginning of this year.

An internal investigation by the insurance giant first looked into his expenses since 2013 and found he made 91 false claims to the tune of £4,160.

However, when bosses delved deeper into the former learning development consultant’s receipts, they found it stretched back a further six years and 353 duplicated claims had been made between 2008 and 2013, totalling £8,923.

Pearse, of Romany Close, Letchworth Garden City, pleaded guilty to false accounting and has re-paid all of the money after selling his home and resigning from the company.

Mr Galley said: “There was a disciplinary hearing from February of this year and he said the claims were genuine mistakes.

“When he was confronted with the scale of the offending he admitted them, and expressed remorse and said he would re-pay.”

The court heard he now suffers from depression and anxiety as a result and is estranged from his partner.

However, he has been able to secure another job and is earning £45,000 a year.

York Press:

Julian Tanikal, defending Pearse, said: “It would appear his partner was no longer working and financially he was having to pay out huge sums a month for his expenses, but had to wait for them to be returned.

“He has reached rock bottom and is suffering from depression and anxiety, and receives counselling.”

The Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC, said: “You had a high position of responsibility within the Aviva organisation.

“You were trusted by the company to the extent where you were able to make, and did make, perfectly legitimate but substantial claims for expenses.

“You stole just over £13,000 of expenses by duplicating amounts that you were legitimately entitled to.

“Had there not been a routine check of your expenses goodness knows how long this would have continued for.”

Pearse was ordered to do 180 hours of unpaid work and pay £150 prosecution costs.