Evening Standard (London): ACCOUNTANT WHO STOLE Pounds 9m Spiralling gambling addiction that

THIS is the accountant who stole more than Pounds 9.2million from his City employers.

Wing Kit Chu, 32, took the money from the engineering giant Charter Plc to fund his gambling addiction.

In a sophisticated series of thefts, he spent more than four years taking the money from under the noses of his bosses.

Today Chu, known to colleagues as David, was starting a fiveyear prison sentence after he admitted 102 offences.

Southwark Crown Court heard he got away with it for so long because the amount was "just peanuts" to the company.

Chu pulled off the massive deception by using colleagues' passwords to log on to company computers and authorise massive payments to his spread-betting account. The court heard that against the background of an Pounds 800million-a-year turnover, Chu "slipped by unnoticed" as he pocketed up to Pounds 150,000 at a time.

Hong Kong-born Chu used some of the money to buy a Pounds 600,000 four-bedroom home in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire. He moved in six weeks before his arrest.

Chu, described by workmates as "quiet, unassuming and polite", became so obsessed by gambling on future FTSE and Nasdaq performances that he withdrew almost half a million pounds in the space of three days. Among the bets he made was who would score the first goal in a football match.

The theft only came to light after he handed in his notice and was asked to help a replacement to work out discrepancies in some figures. After repeatedly failing to explain the inconsistencies, he sent an email to one of his superiors confessing his guilt. It read: "I have failed. I know this is simply unacceptable as an answer.

The truth is I can't bear to face you or any other person in the office any longer. I realise this is not acceptable behaviour from a professional person.

"I have not taken this decision lightly.

I don't expect anybody to understand what I have done because I am not sure myself. I am very, very sorry. I doubt if it will be the end of the story so I guess I will hear from you soon."

The court heard that Chu lay low for three weeks before handing himself in at Belgravia police station last September. Caroline English, defending, said Chu was a talented individual who had risen from humble origins to a leading position within British corporate life.

She said: "From a single room in a cramped, shared Hong Kong house, through his own efforts, determination and sheer hard work, Wing Kit Chu had worked his way up to a senior position with a multinational company."

"He had a good job that paid a good salary and he had a wife who he married in September 2000. He had all the ingredients for a comfortable and happy family life.

"Everything should have been set up for a happy ending, but unfortunately Mr Chu had an Achilles heel, an addiction to gambling, which was to escalate over the years to the point where it became completely out of control. It eventually led to him standing before this court."

Judge Peter Fingret demanded to know why Charter took so long to spot the swindle. Of the amount involved, he asked: "It is peanuts, is it, as far as this company is concerned?" By the time auditors had finished doing their sums, Pounds 9,237,312 was missing. This is twice that stolen from Goldman Sachs by City secretary Joyti De- Laurey, who was jailed for seven years. Chu wept as he was sentenced yesterday. Judge Fingret said: "This was a careful, well-planned and executed sequence of thefts."

Outside court, Detective Sergeant Richard Ward said: "This was a sophisticated fraud. Chu not only breached the trust of his employers and the shareholders of Charter Plc, but also committed a huge betrayal of his colleagues." Charter has said it is trying to recover the money and has also lodged an insurance claim. But any civil action against Chu is likely to recover only a fraction of what he stole.

THE OFFICE FRAUDSTERS

Joyti De-Laurey The Goldman Sachs secretary was convicted of stealing Pounds 4.3 million from her employers. She was jailed for four years last year after Southwark Crown Court heard she spent the money on a villa, a powerboat, nearly Pounds 400,000 of Cartier jewellery and a deposit on a Pounds 175,000 custom-made Aston Martin Vanquish.

Colin Stanton

The 59-year-old financial adviser took almost Pounds 800,000 from a miners' pension fund and was jailed for three years last December. He had been employed by 300 miners who pooled their cash in 1995 to buy Tower Colliery. They later discovered Stanton, from Taplow, Buckinghamshire, had taken their savings and disappeared.

Asif Butt

City trader Butt, 35, was convicted in December of insider trading. Known as The Walrus, he fed tips to friends for bets of up to Pounds 600,000, often minutes before major financial announcements were made.

Nick Leeson

The original "rogue trader" shifted around losses of more than Pounds 850 million to keep them hidden, breaking Barings Bank. Leeson, now 37, joined the celebrity speaking circuit on his return from a Singapore jail.