A “greedy” Camberwell cleaning manager, who tried to pocket almost £170,000 from the financial company Blackrock UK to buy a house in Colombia and several holidays, has been jailed for three years.
Inner London Crown Court heard how Hoover Yasno-Moreno used his role as contracts manager to alter bank details on the payroll of Facilicom Cleaning Services Ltd, diverting thousands of pounds to himself. He was sentenced at the court on last Tuesday, February 21.
City of London Police said the 36-year-old who gave an address in Spain but is formerly of Camberwell, had used the money to pay for a house he was buying in Colombia, as well as a series of foreign holidays.
He pleaded guilty to fraud and two counts of possessing criminal property and was sentenced to three years imprisonment with two years supervision upon release.
Three other south Londoners – Julian Giraldo Martinez, 39, of Norwood Road, West Norwood; Cosme Soto Jaramillo, 45, of Millender Walk, South Bermondsey and John Jairo Diaz Zapata, 41, of Halsmere Road, Camberwell – pleaded guilty to possessing criminal property for their role in the scam.
A fifth person – Esefania Toro Arroyave, 30, of Archer Street, Soho – also pleaded guilty to possessing criminal property.
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Yasno-Moreno, who joined the company in December 2016, would make fake overtime claims and pay the money into accounts in his own name or other people’s accounts.
City of London Police said those who had fraudulent overtime claims submitted on their behalf were a mixture of real employees for the cleaning company but there were also those who had never worked in the building in the City.
The fraud was revealed when a genuine employee said they hadn’t been paid.
Upon further investigation, it emerged that the employee’s bank details had been changed without their consent and that excessive overtime claims had been made on their behalf.
Other employees reported similar problems with payments. In total, the cleaning company were able to provide evidence to police that eight employees had had their bank details changed by Yasno Moreno.
City of London Police said all of Yasno Moreno’s associates involved had money paid into bank accounts in their name and then much of it was transferred directly to Yasno Moreno.
The police said: “Julian Giraldo Martinez allowed Yasno Moreno to use his details to set him up as an employee for his company for two months. He received £1,628.23 into his own account between May to June 2017 and kept 10 per cent for himself and forwarded the rest to Yasno Moreno. Then without Giraldo Martinez’s knowledge, Yasno Moreno continued to use his details but sent the wages to a different account.
“Cosme Soto Jaramillo also allowed Yasno Moreno to use his details in the same way. Four payments totalling £4,199.51 were made to his account between January to May 2017. Yasno Moreno then continued to use Soto Jaramillo’s details without his permission, with the funds going to another account.
“John Diaz Zapata was a genuine employee for the same company, but received £20,046.72 in wages, which were paid using Soto Jaramillo’s details without his knowledge, into his bank account.
“Estefania Toro Arroyave allowed her account to be used to receive £14,886.10 between February to November 2017.”
Julian Giraldo Martinez was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £200 in costs.
Cosme Soto Jaramillo was sentenced to a 12 month community order, 40 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £200.
John Diaz Zapata was sentenced to six months imprisonment suspended for 12 months, order to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and pay £400 in costs.
Estefania Toro Arroyave was sentenced to a 12 month community order and ordered to pay costs of £150.
Detective Constable John Quayle, from the City of London Police, said: “Yasno Moreno had access to systems which allowed him to change payroll details for individual employees and he did so on many occasions without those individuals realising until they hadn’t received their wages.
“To put it simply, Yasno Moreno was greedy and thought he could get away with pocketing thousands of pounds. But he was caught out and will now pay for his greed with time behind bars.”
Police said during his interviews Yasno Moreno answered no comment.
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