A senior oil executive is facing jail after admitting falsely claiming £80,000 in expenses from the company he worked for.
Alan Boal, 58, said “greed” drove him to defraud Vallourec Oil and Gas UK over a five year period while he was employed as their chief financial controller.
Boal submitted false expenses forms, claimed for mileage on days when he wasn’t working and bought gifts – including Christmas presents – for his family using the company credit card.
He was caught out after a colleague became suspicious of him and started keeping a record of his inflated claims.
Boal, of Paisley, Renfrewshire, was investigated by bosses at the multi-national firm who called in police and he confessed to the scam.
At Hamilton Sheriff Court yesterday he admitted defrauding the company of £80,000 by making false expenses claims between May, 2008, and January, 2013.
Fiscal depute Imran Bashir told the court: “At the time of the commission of these offences the accused was regarded as one of the top financial controllers in the company.”
The company, who supply steel pipes to the oil and gas industry, decided to call in police and Boal confessed to colleagues during a meeting at the Dakota Hotel in Lanarkshire.
Mr Bashir added: “The accused said ‘I’ve let you down, I’m really sorry, I don’t know why I did it, I suppose it was just greed’.”
Boal, who based at the company’s site in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, was originally charged with defrauding the firm of £197,465 but pled guilty to the reduced amount.
The court heard he had paid back the sum of £100,000 to the company.
Sheriff Joyce Powrie deferred sentence on Boal until next month for backgrounds reports and continued his bail.