A FRAUDSTER who stole nearly £36,000 during a spate of offences against law firms across West Yorkshire has been jailed for 15 months.
Richard Adamson worked as a legal cashier for the firms and one targeted was Huddersfield law firm Chadwick Lawrence, which lost £6,000.
Adamson, 33, of Ryedale Holt, Leeds, began taking money while he was working for Rahman Ravelli Solicitors in Halifax, but he later moved on to other firms in Huddersfield, Shipley and Wakefield and continued to pocket cash for himself.
Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that some of the later offences were committed while he was already on bail and under investigation for earlier thefts.
After leaving Rahman Ravelli the alcoholic, who also claimed to have used some of the money to pay off a loan for his own wedding, managed to get jobs with other firms as a legal cashier.
Between February, 2009, and August, 2009, Adamson, who had no previous convictions, took around £15,000 from Rahman Ravelli and also spent nearly £1,000 on a company credit card.
After leaving that firm he then took nearly £6,000 in November 2009 while working for Huddersfield solicitors Chadwick Lawrence.
Prosecutor James Bourne-Arton said Adamson left that employment the following month, but in January, 2010, he answered an advert to work for McAllineys Solicitors in Wakefield.
He stole £7,000 from McAllineys before being sacked in July last year, but he then got another job as a legal cashier at Sovereign Solicitors in Shipley in February.
The court heard that Adamson became concerned after he was told a Criminal Records Bureau check was going to be carried out and he failed to return to work.
