Former tax worker accused of theft

Tuesday 03 January 2017

A former tax office worker is on trial charged with stealing over £800 of taxpayers’ contributions.

Carl Frankum appeared before a jury in the Magistrates Court this morning, accused of two counts of theft – £475 in 2012 and £350 in 2013 – from the States of Jersey in 2012 and 2013; he denies both charges.

The trial is being presided over by Bailiff William Bailhache, who apologised for the “inconvenience” that it was the first 'Assize' trial to have not taken place in the Royal Court. 

In his opening remarks, the prosecuting Crown Advocate Chris Baglin explained how Mr Frankum had worked as part of the Payments and Electronic Submissions Team (PEST) at Cyril Le Marquand House since early 2011, where he collected islanders’ ITIS payments and created a receipt for each. 

Under normal circumstances, the PEST officer would give one receipt to the taxpayer, taking the money and a carbon copy of the receipt upstairs for processing.

However, the Court heard that in June 2012, Mr Frankum had signed a receipt pertaining to a payment from a local restaurant of £475, but that the taxpayer later received notice that the amount was still outstanding. 

“In this case, that £475 is never seen again; no tax payment is recorded as being paid,” Advocate Baglin said.

It later emerged that in April 2013, there was a discrepancy in the tax records of a local bakery. The receipt given to the taxpayer showed a quantity of  £2,376.87, yet the amount on record showed that only £2026.87 had been handed over.

Following inspection into the incident by his line manager, the Court heard that Mr Frankum wrote in an email: “I have no recollection of what did or did not happen on that day over a year ago… I have been involved in all types of payments with our team over the past two years and to the best of my knowledge have never made a mistake, so this situation has been very frustrating and distressing.”

Upon closer inspection of the receipt books, it was found that two receipts relating to the 2013 payment had been made consecutively, yet only the lower amount was on record to have been paid.

After the Police were called to investigate the incident in 2014 – after Mr Frankum had left his position – the receipts for the £475 payment were found in the former PEST officer’s top desk drawer. 

Mr Patterson, who formerly served as a civilian inspector with the States of Jersey Police and now works in the Financial Investigation Unit, read from his initial interview with Mr Frankum under caution, in which the defendant denied his wrongdoing.

Reading Mr Frankum’s responses to the questioning as to the whereabouts of the missing money, whose loss was suggested to be the result of “a mistake” or related to the fact that he was undergoing radiotherapy at the time, Advocate Baglin quoted:

“I don’t know… Has it been put in the wrong place? Did I leave it somewhere? I’ve no idea, I’ve absolutely no idea.”

But Mr Patterson maintained that “if this was a mistake, I would expect you to be able to provide an explanation as to the reasons [the receipt] was in your desk drawer.”

The trial continues this afternoon.