A 48-year-old man has denied stealing £100,000 from the metal company where he worked – which was owned by his wife’s family.

Benjamin Mitton is accused of one count of larceny as a servant – stealing cash from his employer – and two counts of transferring stolen money, which refer to him allegedly paying £10,000 and £90,000 into his bank accounts.

His Royal Court trial began yesterday.

The court heard that Mr Mitton joined Hunt Bros Ltd, a family-run business which had been operating in the island for over 170 years, in 2015.

Some of the company’s directors were looking to retire at that time and the firm was growing.

The firm’s managing director, James Hunt, described how prior to Mr Mitton joining, he ran the company with his father and uncle.

“We trusted each other,” said Mr Hunt.

Crown Advocate Mike Preston, prosecuting, said in his opening speech that Mr Mitton was “a dishonest man” and that he abused “unsophisticated” accounting systems.

“The Crown says, despicably the defendant abused that trust in the most callous way to enrich himself to the detriment of his family, his in-laws, who treated him with nothing but kindness,” he said.

Mr Mitton lived with his wife rent-free in a house owned by the business owner, the court heard.

The company generated “a lot of cash” because it paid customers in cash, Advocate Preston said. This would be collected from the bank, brought to the business’s offices and opened by the same staff member, the court heard – and this was often Mr Mitton.

He also described how, while he worked for Hunt Brothers, Mr Mitton regularly paid cash into his bank account.

After he was told by NatWest to close his account, Mr Mitton started new accounts at HSBC and Lloyds, the court heard. He then made two transfers – one of £10,000, and one of £90,000 – into his new accounts.

Advocate Preston said the HSBC account was a business account, with Mr Mitton telling the bank that he was a sole trader and later that he was self-employed, making marine chains and weights for sash windows – he also gave his business address as his home.

It would have been impossible to make sash weights and marine chains from his town home, the court was told.

Advocate Preston took jurors through Mr Mitton’s pay slips as well as bank balances for the time he worked for Hunt Bros, when he paid tens-of-thousands of pounds more into his accounts than he was earning. There was no evidence of other investments or gambling, the advocate added.

“He helped himself to Hunt Bros’s cash and a lot of it,” said Advocate Preston.

In addition to paying the cash into his bank account, the prosecution said he was funding a lifestyle far above his salary.

Crown Advocate Preston added: “The problem with liars and thieves is that very often, they forget what lies they have told or they become even more greedy.

“We say that this defendant was both a liar and he was greedy.”

Mr Hunt described how this would be collected from the bank and stored in a safe which only a small number of employees could access. Mr Mitton, who handled the payroll and other tasks, was one of them.

He described how for years, the company had not been making the profits it should have, leading him to break down in front of Mr Mitton.

He recalled crying and telling Mr Mitton: “I don’t understand where there money’s gone.”

Mr Mitton told him to go home, Mr Hunt said.

It was only after the police visited Mr Hunt that he went over the past four years’ accounts and realised how much money had gone missing.

“I could see there was a big problem,” he said.

Staff had co-operated and opened up their bank accounts to the police, he added.

He found that, from 2015 to 2019 hundreds of thousands of pounds were missing – with the business down £108,000 in 2017, £203,000 in 2018 and £105,000 in 2019.

“From investigating everything in the company, there was no way that this was a mistake,” Mr Hunt said.

“Something or someone had to have taken this money. There was no other explanation.”

After Mr Mitton was suspended by the business, Mr Hunt said its financial problems cleared.

He said: “It was making money. It was as it should have been. It was unreal.

“It was a breath of fresh air and it reinforced that something had been wrong previously.

“It was as it should be.”

In cross-examination, Advocate Greg Herold-Howes, defending, quizzed Mr Hunt about the accounting systems used, which the business owner said had been improved since the alleged incident in 2019.

Commissioner Andrew Oldland is presiding.

The jury trial is due to last between five and eight days.