A MAN has gone on trial for “abusing the trust” of a family-run scrap metal company he worked for by allegedly stealing vast amounts of money from the business.
Benjamin Mitton (48) denies one count of larceny as a servant – stealing cash from his employer – and two counts of transferring £10,000 and £90,000 of stolen money, which refer to him allegedly paying the cash into his bank accounts.
In 2015, Mr Mitton joined Hunt Bros, a family-run business which the Royal Court heard had been operating in the Island since 1851.
The business’s managing director, James Hunt, described how prior to Mr Mitton joining, he ran the firm with his father and uncle.
“We trusted each other,” he said.
Crown Advocate Mike Preston, prosecuting, said in his opening speech that Mr Mitton was “a dishonest man” and that he abused “unsophisticated” accounting systems.
“The Crown says, despicably the defendant abused that trust in the most callous way to enrich himself to the detriment of his family, his in-laws, who treated him with nothing but kindness.”
Mr Mitton lived with his wife rent-free in a house owned by the business owner, the court heard.
The business generated “a lot of cash” because it paid customers in cash, Advocate Preston said.
He also described how while he worked for Hunt Bros, Mr Mitton regularly paid cash into his bank account.
After he was told by NatWest to close his account, Mr Mitton started new accounts at HSBC and Lloyds, the court heard. He then made two transfers – one of £10,000, and one of £90,000 – into the new account.
Advocate Preston said the HSBC account was a business account, with Mr Mitton telling the bank that he was a sole trader and later that he was self-employed, making marine chains and weights for sash windows – he also gave his business address as his home. It would have been impossible to make sash weights and marine chains from his home, the court was told.
Advocate Preston took jurors through Mr Mitton’s pay slips as well as bank balances for the time he worked for Hunt Brothers, when he paid tens of thousands of pounds more into his accounts than he was earning. There was no evidence of other investments or gambling, the advocate added.
“He helped himself to Hunt Brothers’s cash and a lot of it,” he said.
Mr Hunt described how this would be collected from the bank and stored in a safe which only a small number of employees could access. Mr Mitton, who handled the payroll and other tasks, was one of them.
He described how for years, the company had not been making the profits it should have, leading him to break down in front of Mr Mitton.
It was only after the States police visited him that he went over the past four years’ accounts and realised how much money had gone missing.
“I could see there was a big problem,” he said.
He found that from 2015 to 2019, sums of up to £203,000 were missing.
After Mr Mitton was suspended by the business, Mr Hunt said its financial problems cleared: “It was making money. It was as it should have been.”
“It was unreal. It was a breath of fresh air and it reinforced that something had been wrong previously.”
The jury trial is due to last between five and eight days.
Commissioner Andrew Oldland is presiding.
