Property firm almost ruined by thief who boasted on Facebook

A fraudulent accountant brought a property services firm and mortgage brokerage to its knees after stealing thousands of pounds from it.

While his actions caused most of his colleagues to lose their jobs at PALI, a firm which provides financial services, EPCs and property searches, Stephen Siddell boasted about his lavish lifestyle on Facebook.

Photographs of him and his wife lounging by the side of infinity swimming pools were captioned “Because we’re worth it”.

Sidell has now been sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court to three years and five months in prison.

To save the firm, founder Nick Small had to pour in money he had earmarked for his retirement.

He rues the day that Siddell, 28, was taken on as the accountant for Merseyside-based Property and Land Information (PALI), a firm which was also a HIP provider until last year.

Siddell was recruited in October 2009 and began swindling the company just three weeks later, by cashing payments into his own account. When he feared suspicion, he began depositing amounts totalling £86,614 into his 24-year-old wife Louise’s bank account too.

The money was used to pay for expensive holidays, designer clothes and jewellery and even Louise Siddell’s breast enhancement.

The con, totalling £166,710, was discovered by his devastated employers last August.

Judge Nigel Gilmour QC told the pair: “I have read your Facebook entries that cover the period while you were enjoying the fruits of your criminal behaviour.

“They make deeply unattractive reading, boasting of the luxury on holiday in Cyprus.”

He told Louise Siddell: “I have no doubt at all that you demonstrated to all and sundry, including your husband, that you liked the new spending power you had. Your husband was keen to satisfy your love for material goods.”

Siddell, who in fact earnt £15,000 a year, also made a fraudulent loan application for £80,000, lying that his earnings were £135,000.

John Ballam, defending, said that Siddell had co-operated with the police but admitted in an interview: “It just got completely out of hand. I wish I had never started in the first place.”

Siddell pleaded guilty to 63 cases of theft and three fraud offences.

Louise Siddell pleaded guilty to money laundering and was jailed for six months, receiving a shortened jail term due to her being pregnant.

Nick Small Snr, director of PALI, said after the case that the pair had brought to the brink of ruin the family firm he began in 1999 with son Malcolm. The company remains very much a family affair, with Nick junior and daughter Joanna also on board.

Nick Small Snr said: “We have a franchised model and have 30 offices including our head office, where we employed 24 people. As a result of the Siddells, we immediately had to lay off all but eight people, and had the firm gone down the tubes, we would have taken all the other offices with us.

“By the time we discovered that they had been syphoning off money in the August, we had already made heavy losses because of HIPs being cancelled in May. We had completed £200,000 of orders which were not paid for, so Siddell’s actions were absolutely traumatic coming on top of that.

“Last year was not a great one for us – and that is an understatement. We had to put a lot of our own money in to keep going.

“Fortunately, we have come through it with the help of our fantastic staff. We are about to start recruiting again, have invested heavily in IT and are looking forward to launching into the conveyancing market with our Alternative Business Structure.

“The financial position of the company is sound and we are looking to expand. The future of the company is looking great and we look forward to a busy year ahead.

“Louise Siddell posted on her Facebook page when holidaying at a six-bedroom villa ‘Because we’re freaking worth it’. I wonder how the Siddells feel their current accommodation compares with the villa they holidayed at. Was it worth it?”

Pictured: Siddell and one of his Facebook photos