A manager at Halfords got a 30-month prison sentence for using a coupon inflation scheme that led to him stealing £90,000 ($119,669) to fund his gambling addiction. [image: Shutterstock.com]

A manager at Halfords in Scotland stole £90,000 ($119,669) from his employer through a coupon refund scheme and gambled away all the money. Gary Ridgewell will serve 30 months in prison for the embezzlement that took place over five years at the automotive retail store’s Dumbarton and Perth locations.

The scam saw the 51-year-old increase the value of coupons from customers in the system and then take the difference for himself from the tills. This wouldn’t raised any red flags as the recorded balance and the cash in the register would match. If the till didn’t have enough cash in it, Ridgewell would add funds to it from the safe.

Halfords started investigating suspicious transactions at stores as part of a separate probe

Everything eventually came to a head when Halfords started investigating suspicious transactions at stores as part of a separate probe, and the company suspended Ridgewell in March 2018 after looking into suspiciously high safe balances. Investigators subsequently saw the instances of theft on video surveillance footage, and Ridgewell confessed everything after they confronted him.

The court heard that Ridgewell started gambling as a 13-year-old and struggled with addiction most of his life. Sheriff Alison McKay said that even if the defendant made total restitution, the severity of the case meant that some prison time was almost inevitable.