Fraudulent hotel manager spared jail

A Haverhill hotel deputy manager who admitted defrauding his employers out of more than £5,000, has been spared jail.

Instead Taro Rawles, 41, of Vetch Walk, Haverhill, was given a six month jail sentence suspended for two years by Judge Anthony Goldsaub QC at Chelmsford Crown Court and ordered to carry out 250 hours unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £400 costs and a victim surcharge of £80.

He will return to the court in early October to decide on compensation.

Rawles, who was the manager of the Days Inn, on Phoenix Road, Haverhill, pleaded guilty in June this year to fraud by abuse of trust which involved using the hotel's cash to pay off his own credit card.

Mark Lakin, prosecuting, told the court Rawles obtained £5,051.57 involving 25 transactions using the card payment facilities to credit refunds onto his card.