Former IT officer Steven Neul is today adjusting to daily life in prison after his gambling addiction led him to do the unthinkable. He tells his incredible story to court reporter Mark Naylor
A FORMER senior officer at Shoreline Housing Partnership who was jailed for two-and-a-half years after a big fraud scam involving nearly £174,000 has revealed how his life became "consumed" by betting.
His gambling problem escalated so badly that he was brought to the brink of suicide but he is now full of shame and remorse for what he did while in the grip of the addiction.
He sold large numbers of iPhones and iPads after placing bogus orders for them supposedly on behalf of Shoreline, Grimsby Crown 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 had been working for Shoreline as a business systems and services manager responsible for IT.
He told the Grimsby Telegraph in an interview before the court case that "compulsive gambling statistics" recorded by Gamcare had doubled in the past five years, mainly because of internet gaming and fixed odds betting terminals (roulette machines).
"It sends out a frightening picture of the number of people who are now seeking help," he said.
"There were more than half-a-million unique visitors to the Gamcare website in the past year – half-a-million new people looking at their website.
"If I can help anybody learn from my situation, then great.
"My situation started when I was 16 or 17, going in to a bookmakers, even though the legal age is 18.
"I had had issues before that a little bit, when I used to enjoy slot machines but that's not something I have touched in 30 years.
"I was betting on horse racing at the time. In later years, football matches became something I could bet on as well as other sporting events.
"Ultimately, it was anything with an available betting market.
"Technically, now you can bet online 24 hours a day. I wasn't involved in online betting. Mine was purely in bookmakers.
"I preferred to bet in person in bookmakers' shops in Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
"To coincide with that, around that time, in the late 80s, bookmakers started opening on Sundays and late at night and there were extended events that you could bet on.
"When I first started, it was horse racing and greyhound racing, then you started being able to bet on pretty much any sporting event, from 8.30am until 9.30pm and virtual races.
"It went from Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm, to now almost seven days a week, for 13 or 14 hours a day. That's the availability to gamble.
"What started as fun ended up becoming habitual and becoming an almost daily occurrence for me.
"When I was younger, it would just be spare cash and money I could afford to lose but, by the time I was 25 or 26, within a few years, it was money I could afford to lose and money I couldn't afford to lose.
"I began to build up debts. The reality is that, by my mid-20s, I owed tens of thousands of pounds, which I paid back over a ten-year period."
He said that, with gambling, it was similar to drinking because the person built up tolerance to gambling, just as a drinker built up tolerance to alcohol.
His tolerance level built up to the level where he had a "binge" on gambling.
"I actually won £8,000 in February last year," he said.
"I turned £20 into £150 and put a £100 treble. It was on two football matches and the third leg on an American golfer, who won late at night.
"But, because my partner and family didn't think I was gambling or knew I should not gamble, what could I do with the money?
"I couldn't go home with the money because I knew I should not have been gambling in the first place and my partner and family controlled my income and finances.
"The only thing I could do with £8,000 was gamble again. I lost that £8,000 and to a compulsive gambler that means one thing – that you try to chase those losses.
"Last year, I was at the point where I would gamble on any sporting event – it could be golf, football, horse racing, greyhound racing.
"You can now place bets on events happening any time around the world and around the clock.
"Although I wasn't actually physically standing there betting for 14 or 15 hours a day, the events that I would have placed a bet on were actually in play 14 or 15 hours a day.
"You become consumed. For three or four months, my life was totally consumed with watching the next event or looking for the result of the next event.
"Neither my partner nor my family knew anything about this binge and when the police knocked on my door, it was a massive, massive shock to them.
"My partner has, for the past few years, managed my income. She has, to the penny, monitored my income.
"We have had nice holidays, nice cars and other things but it was all out of the income I have earned.
"Not one penny ever went back into the household from gambling.
"Effectively, I was two people. I became two people – the Steve who was working hard with money to provide for his family and the unknown Steve who was committing crime to feed his gambling habit.
"After 30 years, this is the first time I have ever committed any crime whatsoever.
"I have never, ever been in trouble. The normal, hard-working, non-gambling Steve is a very, very honest person.
"I have raised a lot of money for charity and have helped a lot of other people, some with their own addictions."
He said that things were "very strained" with his family.
"When this all came to light, before the end of this major binge, I couldn't see a way out and I was planning my suicide," he said.
"That's how bad it can go. In July and August last year, I had four options – I would become homeless, I would kill myself, I would go to prison or I would go to Gamblers Anonymous and stop gambling.
"I came very close to the suicide and, thankfully, chose Gamblers Anonymous on September 6.
"I have been five months without a bet. I know I won't gamble again. Gambling had beaten me. I want to beat it. For the first time, I actually want to beat gambling.
"My family didn't know I was gambling last year. There was absolutely no personal gain. Every single penny has been proven to the police that it went to local bookmakers.
"Ninety per cent went to Corals. No bookmaker will ever challenge you.
"If you have got a wad of cash, they will take it. That's nothing derogatory towards the staff.
"The staff are excellent but the company is in business to make money.
"The staff aren't going to say: 'Hold on, you are spending enough' because I would have looked like a fairly respectable businessman in a suit."
He said that, since the offences came to light, he had voluntarily given up two loves in his life, coaching part-time for Grimsby Town, having paid for himself over three years to reach UEFA B level, and playing snooker, because he did not want the football club to have a "black mark" against it.
"I didn't want the children I was coaching to pick up the paper and see me in it," he said.
"I played snooker for 28 years locally and, for the same reasons, I stopped playing snooker.
"The support I have received has been fantastic from family, as you would expect, and friends, a number of whom I have not seen for many years but who have contacted me.
"I am packing my bag ready for prison with items I am led to believe you need for prison.
"It's an awful situation to be in, to be unable after 28 years of working flat out to not being in work and to not be able to put things in place for my family.
"I gave a full, open and honest, frank admission to Shoreline. Obviously, they were left with no choice but to dismiss me under gross misconduct. I admitted everything and was extremely co-operative – the same with the police.
"I left Shoreline at the end of August and, within three weeks, I had started in a new fantastic role to try to rebuild my profile. It was a fantastic job in an IT consultant role that was sending me around the country and abroad.
"I was working for some of the biggest brands in the country and household names and I was receiving excellent reviews from these clients.
"Unfortunately, that was taken away from me because of an unnecessary e-mail from an ex-colleague which left the new owners of the company in an untenable position.
"I was kicked while I was down."
He has been attending meetings of Hull Gamblers Anonymous every Tuesday.
"I am expecting to go to prison," he said.
"The number of people who have got a partner, a relative or a friend who has got a problem with gambling or drinking is quite phenomenal.
"I would urge anybody, if they gamble themselves and can't seek help, for their family or a friend to seek help on their behalf.
"Non-gamblers can attend Gamblers Anonymous to understand how it works.
"I am very ashamed of what I have done and am sorry. I would rather it be out in the open and hope it might help one or two others who are out there.
"I apologise to anyone I have affected in person.
"I have sat people down face to face to tell them about what has happened and they have said: 'I never even knew you bet'. They can't believe it.
"I have not gained anything financially. Thousands of pounds would be covered by my own money.
"I had a lifestyle many people would be envious of. I had a good income, holidays abroad, nice clothes and other things.
"I didn't need to gamble for money because I had money.
"If I can help others, I will do. I am already thinking about how I can perhaps help others with their problems in the future.
"For everyone that asks for help, there are a lot more that don't. I knew I couldn't get away with this. I didn't get caught.
"Having been responsible for the procurement and implementation of all IT systems within Shoreline, including finance systems, I obviously knew that there was no way I could have avoided detection, but the gambling took over to the point where had to carry on.
"The need to gamble was simply too strong.
"I have won thousands over the years but, when you are not supposed to be gambling, all you can do is hand it back by way of your next bet.
"I once won approximately £10,000 in the 1990s at Beverley races but I couldn't go home to my mother and say: 'Here you go, I am going to buy a car' because I should not have been gambling.
"So I put the £10,000 in the car boot. The next morning, I woke up to get this £10,000 and it was swimming in water.
"I spent hours trying to dry it on radiators. About a third of it was unrecoverable. That's how bizarre it was and how the mind of a compulsive gambler works.
"Anybody in their right mind would have gone in and said: 'Take that off me. I shouldn't have been gambling'."
He said the Shoreline thefts happened after he succumbed to temptation.
"Somebody gave me a bundle of cash," he added. "It was like red rag to a bull and I went and gambled it and resorted to doing something that I never thought I could do.
"I have lost a perfectly good career with a very good salary but I can't change that. All I can do is put things in place for the future, which I have done, and hope somebody will give me a chance in terms of employment when the time arrives.
"I like to think that a sober Steve has a lot to offer."
Do you have a problem? Or maybe you have overcome it? Tell us at www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk If you want to tell us your story anonymously, e-mail newsdesk@grimsbytelegraph or call 01472 372213.
