A FORMER senior officer at Shoreline Housing Partnership faces a prison sentence after a big fraud scam involving nearly £174,000.
He sold large numbers of iPhones and iPads for his own gain after placing bogus orders for them supposedly on behalf of Shoreline, a court heard.
Steven Neul, 45, of Humberston Avenue, Humberston, admitted fraud between March 24 and July 15 and converting criminal property between March 24 and July 10.
The fraud involved dishonestly pretending to Jungle IT and Vodafone that he was ordering iPhones and iPads on behalf of his employer. He sold 160 iPhones and 177 iPads, valued at £173,900, to obtain cash for himself.
Neul – who is well known on the snooker circuit – had been working for Shoreline as head of IT and customer services at the time.
He entered his guilty pleas during a preliminary hearing at Grimsby Crown Court.
The case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports. Ian Durant, representing Neul, told the court that he had commissioned a psychiatric report to assist with matters to be raised at the next hearing.
Neul was allowed unconditional bail.
He was told that they were serious offences and was warned that all options would be open when he was sentenced. After the hearing, he declined to comment at this stage.
Tony Bramley, chief executive of Shoreline, said: "We can confirm that we uncovered the fraud in July 2014 and immediately reported this to Humberside Police, and that in August 2014, Mr Neul was summarily dismissed from our employment for gross misconduct for the misappropriation of funds from the housing charity.
"We are most grateful for the assistance of Humberside Police in this matter and will not be commenting further until after sentencing."
