The former army Major is to appear before the Royal Court’s Superior Number – which convenes only for the most serious offences – after admitting 19 counts of fraud and forgery.
He is currently behind bars having been remanded in custody in December.
FOLLOW THE JEP ONLINE FOR UPDATES TODAY AND SEE FRIDAY’S NEWSPAPER FOR FULL STORY AND BACKGROUND.
Detectives from the States police’s Joint Financial Crimes Unit spent months sifting through ten million documents on JSPCA hard drives to bring ‘domineering’ Coleman to justice.
In total, Coleman took £400,000 – £300,000 of which was for himself – by manipulating board minutes to give himself massive pay rises as well as bonuses including one of up to £17,000. The JEP understands his salary increased by more than 130% over a decade.
The rest of the money was paid to innocent members of staff through unauthorised pay rises and bonuses – a tactic, police say, Coleman used to cover his tracks. The States police confirmed that no one else is being investigated and they have closed the inquiry.
Such was the impact of Coleman’s offending on the JSPCA – one of Jersey’s oldest charities– it nearly went bankrupt and needed help from generous Islanders as well as cost-saving measures introduced by business expert Kevin Keen to put it back on a ‘stable footing’.
Coleman’s offending started in 2007, not long after he was employed and did not stop until 2017 when he was suspended.
Detective Inspector Lawrence Courtness, of the Joint Financial Crimes Unit, said: ‘From the point of view of these crimes the reason he has done this [fraudulently award others pay-rises and bonuses] is for his own benefit.
‘If everyone is getting a pay rise it does not stick out so much. For the other staff, they just thought they were getting an increase in pay or a bonus. It was Coleman that was committing the crimes, it was he who was changing the minutes.’
