Just The Facts!

Compulsive Gambling

An onlinegambling addict stole thousands from a travel agency owned by Phillip Schofield, the television presenter, as she tried to bet her way out of debt, a court was told yesterday. Schofield, the daytime TV host, is a director and stars in the television advertisement for Lets Go Travel, where Cindy Streets ran the bureau de change at the Exeter branch. Streets, 21, stole £26,100 in four weeks to feed her addiction to online Poker Tournaments and internet betting exchanges. Exeter Crown Court was told that Streets’s former boyfriend, also a gambling addict, helped to persuade her that they would get lucky and be able to pay back her employer and clear the debts owed on her five credit cards; but Streets’s losing streak continued when she was jailed for 12 months yesterday. Judge Graham Cottle told her: “You were entirely complicit in the gambling, doubtless hoping you would win enough to pay off your debts and re- imburse your employers. “That did not happen. In the real world it does not happen. There was some attempt made to cover up your dishonesty, but it brought only temporary relief. I find the particular use to which the money was put an aggravating feature of this case.”

Streets’s dishonesty started when she reached the credit limit on her cards and slipped £1,000 in cash into her handbag. Next she stole £6,000 in foreign currency and fiddled computer records in an attempt to cover up the theft. The court was told that Streets and her former boyfriend, Paul Hocking, spent hours gambling on the internet and she kept stealing in the hope of recouping their losses. Streets admitted three offences of false accounting and asked for the theft of £26,218.08 to be considered. Sean Brunton, for the prosecution, said that Lets Go Travel called in the police after £2,000 in unused foreign exchange was not returned to its head office even though computer records suggested it had been. Streets admitted taking the money and told police how she and her boyfriend had lost the money. Mr Brunton said: “Her credit cards show that they were used directly for gambling. She said that she was trying to win back what she had lost and the debts she had run up by gambling online.” He read from her police interview, in which she said: “I made a stupid mistake and borrowed £1,000 from work to try to win back money. I lost the £1,000 and then the second lot I took was £6,000 worth of currency. “I tried to use that to pay back the £1,000 plus my credit card, but I got more and more into debt with online gambling. We did win £5,000 back at one stage but we wanted to carry on gambling to win back the full amount and then we lost the winnings.” Stephen Nunn, for Streets, said that his client, who earned £14,000 a year, was led astray by her former boyfriend who was unemployed and a gambling addict. He said: “Her boyfriend told her that he would get lucky and that with the next wedge of money they would win, but it did not happen. It all happened over a short period of time and escalated beyond any expectations. Her misplaced loyalty and immaturity resulted in her getting into debt and then supporting her boyfriend in a desperate attempt to get out of it.”