Crooked treasurer scammed and stole £3,571 from snooker league

The crooked treasurer of a regional snooker league was found to have scammed and stolen £3,571 from the league after irregularities were spotted in the accounts.
Chesterfield magistrates' court.Chesterfield magistrates' court.
Chesterfield magistrates' court.

Chesterfield magistrates’ court heard on Tuesday, August 1, how Michael Hammon, 43, of Corporation Street, Chesterfield, withdrew £780 using a signed, blank cheque and also stole £2,791 from the league.

Prosecuting solicitor Becky Allsop said: “Hammon was the treasurer for the Chesterfield and District Snooker League and during that time he was responsible for banking monies and kept accountancy books.

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“Towards the end of June this year there was an outgoing chairman and a new chairman had been voted in and he wanted to see the accounts to make sure they were in order.

“Attempts to arrange for these to be provided were fruitless and eventually he went to the bank to see the accounts and asked for a copy of the accounts and a statement and he was shocked to see a large quantity of money was missing.”

Other members spoke to Hammon and the defendant admitted to one member he had taken the monies and he had a gambling addiction and he had used the monies to pay off his debts, according to Mrs Allsop.

Mrs Allsop added that during Hammon’s time as treasurer he had withdrawn £2,791 for himself and he had also asked the former chairman to sign a blank cheque for a presentation night expense of about £90 but he ended up using this cheque to withdraw £780 for himself.

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Hammon told police he had debts of about £14,000 and he had been withdrawing money from the league’s bank account which totalled £3,571.

The defendant pleaded guilty to committing fraud to the tune of £780 from June 2, 2017, and admitted stealing £2,791 between September, 2016, and July, 2017.

Magistrates, who adjourned the case to consider a probation report, sentenced Hammon to 12 weeks of custody suspended for 12 months with 150 hours of unpaid work.

He was also ordered to pay £3,571 in compensation.