Club treasurer stole to pay off card debts

GUILTY: Tim Kinder

A FORMER bank manager who stole thousands of pounds from Waterhead Rugby League Club to pay off spiralling personal debts was behind bars yesterday.

Tim Kinder (50) stole money while treasurer at the club after sinking under mounting credit card bills.

Kinder had handled the finances at the Oldham club from 2003 until 2007 because of his financial background as manager of the HSBC branch in the town.

But suspicions arose in August, 2007, when a brewery and travel company both complained they were owed thousands of pounds in unpaid invoices after cheques had bounced because of insufficient funds in the rugby club bank accounts.

Kinder, of Sunfield Avenue, Oldham, told police he had nine or 10 credit cards with debts of £85,000 on them. He told officers he left his job at the bank in June, 2006, because of stress, and had started his own courier company.

But with mounting credit card debts, he began forging signatures on cheques to cash, and creating false invoices from his courier firm to the rugby club.

He also admitted setting up a ghost company in March, 2005, in order to secure a loan for the rugby club from HSBC which would not authorise loans to sports clubs. The money was used to pay off bills run up by the club.

Mr Michael Leeming, prosecuting, told Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester: “It is not being suggested that the £40,000 loan — later increased by a further £5,500 — was being used to feather the defendant’s own nest.”

He added: “He said to police he was sinking, his figures were bad, he wasn’t thinking straight and he couldn’t understand why he did it. His plan was to borrow some money to pay the club back before he was found out.”

The court heard that HSBC was owed £67,389.11 from outstanding loan payments and other debts on the club’s accounts.

Kinder admitted using £13,182 of the club’s funds to pay off credit card debts, creating false invoices worth £5,500 and stealing £6,907 of cash.

Mr Mark Fireman, defending, said: “This is a man whose debts spun out of control and it was a desperate attempt to ward off the inevitable.”

Adjourning sentence until March 12, Judge Bernard Lever remanded Kinder in custody and said: “It is said that for a person like yourself, it is the first part of the sentence which is the real punishment.

“What I have to reflect on and think about very carefully over the next month is whether that is a sufficient punishment for you and whether I can consider suspending the rest of the sentence and give you unpaid work. I am making no promises.”

Kinder pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to one count of obtaining money transfer by deception, theft, forging a cheque and two counts of fraud by abuse of position.

* We have been asked to make it clear that at a previous hearing, club chairman Kevin Hobson and club secretary Alan Booth said they felt sorry only for the defendant’s family and not the defendant.