JERSEY Mutual says it has taken action to reduce the risk of it falling victim to fraud – after a manager stole £3.4 million over a period of ten years.
Roy Anthony Jeanne, now aged 73, was yesterday jailed for nine years after stealing the funds to spend on gambling and a villa in Spain.
He concealed the thefts by fabricating invoices, together with co-defendant Michael John Timms, to create the impression that the money was legitimate expenditure.
Timms, who carried out advertising and marketing work for the insurance company, falsified paperwork and produced invoices for work that had not been done, or inflated prices for work that had been completed.
In return, company was granted valuable contracts and the now 74-year-old received £160,000.
He was jailed for four years.
The huge fraud was uncovered in June 2018, six years after Jeanne had retired as general manager.
The subsequent police investigation was described in court as one of the most complex fraud cases ever seen in Jersey.
In a statement, Jersey Mutual said that they noted the sentencing with “satisfaction”, adding that it had been a “long wait for justice”.
They continued: “The society and its members placed their trust in Mr Jeanne. He betrayed that trust, and Mr Timms conspired to help him do so.
“The society now awaits the decision of the court in relation to any compensation order granted, from which the society can recover as much of the stolen money from Mr Jeanne and Mr Timms as we can.
“It is important to note that these misdeeds never jeopardised the society’s financial stability, nor led to any member suffering any losses of benefit.
“Nevertheless, we are taking this legal action in an attempt to recover funds that belong to the society.”
The spokesperson added: “The society recognises, and deeply regrets, that Mr Jeanne was able to misuse his authority to defraud the society, in collaboration with Mr Timms. Since the fraud was uncovered, we have taken appropriate action to minimise any possibility that this could happen again.
“This has included the commissioning of independent third-party reviews of both the compliance and governance and accounting functions, whose recommendations we fully adopted and integrated into our policies and procedures.”
