Chronic gambler Dennis Telford had his hand in the till. Both hands, in fact.
Over the years, the 44-year-old family man took Aus$22-million (about R100-million) from the Adelaide trucking firm where he was company secretary.
Telford, who pleaded guilty to 63 fraud charges, got hooked on horse races early in life. Abusing his position of trust at the listed logistics company allowed him to raise the stakes and gamble like there was no tomorrow.
A year before he was caught, Telford was using company cash to place single bets of Aus$300 000. His addiction was so deep that a psychologist placed him among the world’s most chronic gamblers.
The difference in court between pinching a few dollars from the till and transferring millions to a private bank account is the severity of the sentence. Telford was handed a 14-year jail term. — Sapa-DPA