A CATERING company manager has been jailed for stealing more than £200,000 to feed his gambling addiction.

Richard Jacobs looted so much from the family run JR Food Services that it had to cancel bonuses for its 100 staff and increase its overdraft limit at the bank.

Jacobs used his position as general manager at the Clyst Honiton based firm to siphon off cash by approving bogus invoices for vehicle parts and office equipment.

He used two PayPal accounts to collect the money which he blew during a seven-year £460,000 gambling spree which left him with losses almost exactly the same as the amount he stole.

In a victim impact statement, director Nicola Whitechurch said: ‘The loss had a detrimental effect on our 100 employees. It meant 100 bonuses not paid and 100 people having to work twice as hard to pay for his selfishness.

‘He was considered as one of the family and a friend and we have been left personally devastated by his betrayal.’

Jacobs, aged 50, of Steeple Drive, Alphington, admitted fraud and was jailed for 30 months by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: ‘The money was siphoned off into your own accounts and the reason you were doing that was because you were gambling what on any objective view were colossal amounts of money.

‘The sums were diverted to that sorry cause became more and more significant over time. Your culpability is increased by how long it went on and the craft by which you set about it.’

Mr Nigel Wraith, prosecuting, said Jacobs joined the company in 2006 and was promoted despite them knowing about him stealing from a previous employer.

By the time he started stealing money in 2013 he was a senior manager on £38,000 a year with the ability to create and pay false invoices. He started in a small way but the fraud increased when he realised he could get away with it.

He was in February 2020 when the finance director asked to check the PayPal accounts. He returned his company car and sent a resignation e-mail admitting the fraud.

He stole a total of £216,609.97, which was a few thousand more than his gambling losses. In all he gambled £460,000 with winnings of £264,000, leaving a loss of £196,000.

Miss Holly Gilbery, defending, said Jacobs was shocked by how much his fraud had added up to and has written a letter of apology to the company in which he expresses his shame.

He has overcome his gambling addiction and found a new job with a company which supplies the NHS.

The Judge ordered an investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act but was told that Jacobs has no known remaining assets.