Fiancé jailed for spending accidental wages on wedding

Wednesday 19 September 2018

A groom-to-be broke down in the dock as he learned he would be jailed for spending £6,500 on wedding planning from wages paid to him accidentally, and then falsifying accounts to cover up what he had done.

23-year-old Damian Marek was handed the nine-month prison sentence in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Rather than declaring the four accidental payments of over £1,500 each at the time, Marek spent the money on paying his debts and preparing for his wedding with his bride-to-be.

When Marek’s employer first confronted him about the overpayments, he tried to hand his boss £1,800 in cash - which was refused – but denied having received four overpayments.

Pictured: The Magistrate's Court heard that when Marek was first confronted about the payments, he offered his boss £1,800 in cash but denied receiving the other three overpayments.

In an attempt to prove his case, Marek then showed bank statements to his employer. It later emerged, however, that he had deleted all the erroneous transactions from them in an attempt to conceal the fact he had received the money.

Marek was arrested on suspicion of larceny in August when his address was searched and his bank statements seized.

He was represented in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday by Advocate Jane Grace, who argued that Marek had initially denied the offences because he was “was fearful of the consequences.” 

She described his behaviour as “very foolish”, adding that her client was “ashamed of his actions”, but that “the temptation of the money in the bank account was something that he couldn’t overcome.”

Relief Magistrate David Le Cornu, presiding, addressed the visibly emotional Marek whilst handing down his sentence: “The courts have an established policy that those who steal from their employers should go to prison except in exceptional circumstances.”

Although Relief Magistrate Le Cornu noted Mr Marek’s guilty plea and good employment record, he commented that “none of those is an exceptional circumstance”.

He continued: “A serious aggravating factor is that you falsified your bank accounts and then took them to your employers in an attempt to show that you hadn’t received the money.”

Marek was then sentenced to nine months in prison, as well as an order to repay the sum of the overpayments in full upon his release.