A CROOKED finance boss stole more than £½m from a Huddersfield company.
But yesterday, a court heard how the textile dyes company could get back only £1,220.
Dystar UK Ltd, which was based on the Pennine Business Park at Bradley for several years, had almost £600,000 stolen by trusted employee Nicholas Dewhirst.
Former finance controller Dewhirst was jailed in April after he admitted stealing the huge amount from Dystar UK Limited over more than seven years.
Dewhirst, of Lane End, Bramley, was sentenced to five years in prison for the offending and Bradford Crown Court was told that he was now bankrupt.
The 53-year-old had been earning £40,000-a-year plus a pension while he worked for the firm, who have now relocated to Halifax, but he stole the money to pay off credit card debts and maintain his family’s lifestyle.
Dewhirst’s financial affairs have been investigated as part of a Proceeds of Crime Act inquiry, but when his case was heard at Bradford Crown Court yesterday his only available asset was said to be the £1,220 in cash which was seized by the police when he was arrested.
Prosecutor Jonathan Sharp told Judge Neil Clark that Dewhirst’s benefit figure from criminal conduct had been agreed as £593,023.58, but the £1,220 was the only asset which could be paid back as compensation to Dystar.
