By Staff Reporter

Last updated 16:32, Saturday, 23 August 2008

A CROOKED accountant stole more than £27,000 from two picturesque Cumbrian hotels.

David Hunter, 49, was the senior financial controller in-charge of cash at MacDonald Hotels’ four-star Leeming House at Ullswater and The Swan, Grasmere.

He pocketed money from the hotels and also doctored their accounts to mask other thefts, Carlisle Crown Court heard yesterday.

Hunter, of Borland Avenue, Carlisle, was jailed for two years for what a judge described as “a gross breach of trust” and “systematic plundering of money”,

It was claimed he stole the cash because of financial problems and to pay for improvements to his recently-acquired Botcherby home.

The court heard Hunter had a string of previous convictions for stealing from former employers, which his bosses at MacDonald Hotels were not aware of.

Frank Nance, prosecuting, said auditors discovered financial irregularities at Leeming House and The Swan, which pointed to Hunter, who pleaded guilty to stealing a total of £27,446.

The cash was stolen over an 18-month period, but mainly late last summer and autumn, with hotel bosses alerted to the scam in October.

Hunter siphoned much of the cash out of an account used to give staff advances on their wages, signing them off as loans to himself. Management mainly left him to work independently because he was perceived as a good employee. Accounts from the hotels were also adapted to conceal other thefts.

Initially, Hunter told accountancy chiefs that one large loan to him had been authorised by his regional manager, but Mr Nance said he had actually been refused and “gone off in somewhat of a huff”.

He later resigned by text message as the investigation into the missing money continued.

Keith Thomas, defending, said his client’s bosses at MacDonald Hotels should bear some responsibility for failing to check his criminal background and for not supervising him more stringently.

“In reality, he has made nothing from these series of offences because his house has been repossessed and the defendant has no money at all,” he added.

Sentencing, Judge Paul Batty QC told Hunter: “What you did over a relatively short period of time in the summer of last year was systematically plunder money from your employers.”

He added: “The matter is further seriously aggravated by the fact you have four previous convictions – all for thefts from your employers.”

Police will now launch an attempt to seize Hunter’s ill-gotten gains using the Proceeds of Crime Act. A hearing will be held in January.