Daniel Edgly was caught stealing £150,000 from the till of one of the country's leading galleries.
Edgly ran a ticket scam while working as a cashier at the Courtauld Gallery between 2010 and 2013. He would charge the £5 or £6 entry fee to customers, but cancel the transaction on the touch-screen till and present the customer with a different pair of tickets. He would then store the money in a separate part of the till to be snuck out later and deposited in a nearby bank. Courtauld, a leading centre of art conservation that is home to works by Van Gogh, Cézanne, Matisse, Canaletto and Degas and attracts over 200,000 visitors per year.
Mr Edgly pled guilty to the fraud at Southwark Crown Court and was sentenced to three years in court by the judge who is a great lover of art and the Courtald Gallery. Sentencing Edgley to three years in prison, he said:
"The Courtauld is one of the most wonderful institutions ... art, pictures and paintings are things that make life so much better."
The Courtauld is a leading centre of art conservation that is home to works by Van Gogh, Cézanne, Matisse, Canaletto and Degas and attracts over 200,000 visitors per year. Peter Zenner, who was prosecuting the fraud said it was; "a pre-planned, fairly sophisticated and sustained scheme".
Edgley would turn his back to CCTV cameras and use the log-in details of other members of staff to cover up his crime. He was caught when a temporary member of staff noticed him behaving strangely at the till and with customer money.
Bosses of the gallery held an investigation; checking CCTV and cross-referencing rotas with staff log-in times. Through this investigation they discovered that Edgley had taken between £130,000 and £150,000 over three years.
The defense for Edgly claimed this was as a result of a gambling addiction.The prosecution asked for Edgley to pay £130,000 in compensation but his lack of funds meant that he would not be able to meet this commitment.
Judge Price said:
"It was a breach of trust, it was planned, it was planned because you had a problem with gambling.You used other members of staff's logins, which put them under suspicion, which was awful."
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This blog post is intended as a news item only - no connection between Lewis Nedas and the parties concerned is intended or implied.
