Swindling manager jailed for four years

A Harrogate hotel manager who swindled more than £100,000 out of Queens Moat House hotels (QMH) to fund his lavish lifestyle was jailed for four years last week.

His hotel financial controller was jailed for one year for her part in the affair.

Stephen Pinchbeck, who managed the town's QMH property, funded the scam by hiring showbiz stars such as Michael Ball, Joe Longthorne and the Sisters of Soul for concerts at the nearby International Conference Centre.

Most of the bills for the major events were paid by the hotel while the £27,000-a-year manager pocketed the profits, Teesside Crown Court heard.

When Pinchbeck, 52, married his deputy, Claire McClelland, he booked Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen for £2,000 to play at their lavish reception.

He also plundered £3,000-worth of Champagne from his hotel cellars for their wedding guests at the Lakeside Hotel in Cumbria.

He regularly took home boot-loads of his favourite Macon wine, costing £18 a bottle, for which he never paid, and stole £17,000 from petty cash.

Pinchbeck, who has since resigned and was working as a hospitality consultant in Pitlochry, Scotland, was jailed after admitting conspiracy to defraud, theft and deception over five years.

Judge Guy Whitburn QC told him: "You were a greedy man who wanted a lifestyle you could not afford. It was a devious and profitable breach of trust, and where the money went has not been fully explained."

In defence, Pinchbeck's QC, David Hatton, said that his client had worked hard to build the property into the highest-rated AA hotel in the town.

The hotel's financial controller, Anne Oprey, 61, helped to cover up the deficiencies by holding back invoices totalling £130,000 from angry creditors demanding payment for hotel supplies.

She admitted the fraud conspiracy over two years, false accounting and theft, and was jailed for a year.

By Clive Armitage