Staff member jailed for stealing £30k from Cancer Studies department

A University of Manchester employee who embezzled more than £30,000 has been jailed.

James Cleary, 40, pleaded guilty to fraud at an earlier hearing and was jailed for 20 months last Thursday at Manchester Crown Court.

He lived in Salford and worked for the University of Manchester for 14 years between 1996 and 2010.

At the time he left, he was a Research Business Manager for the School of Cancer and Enabling Sciences and was authorised to sign claims for fees.

Alarm bells rang for the department when they struggled to pay a claim for fees due to missing funds in their account.

Further investigation revealed that 25 separate claims had been authorised by Cleary over a three-and-a-half year period.

The total paid out came to a staggering £30,025, with Cleary using the phoney alias ‘Michelle Roberts’ to pocket the money. His scam was finally exposed when enquiries matched account numbers and sort codes to that of Clearys.

Detective Constable Dom Brady said: “Cleary was employed in a position of trust by the University, and was given a lot of responsibility to process claims for reasonably large amounts of money.

Sadly, he completely abused the trust the University placed in him and defrauded them to the tune of £31,984.

“He admitted during interview he had a drug and alcohol addiction that he needed to fund, and freely volunteered he spent some of the embezzled cash on Blackberry mobile phones and computer.

“I would like to praise the staff at the University who have worked very closely with us during this investigation and cooperated fully, which has led to this conviction. I hope this also sends out a message that you should think very carefully before attempting to rip-off your employers as you could be facing a stint behind bars.”

Brady added that Cleary had expressed remorse, and that he was confident Cleary was even sorrier for his actions following the sentence.