A FINANCE manager driven by greed swindled just under £40,000 from his employer in less than two years, a court has heard.

Today Robert Jump, of Rushmere Road, will be waking up behind bars after he was sentenced to one year in prison for fraud at Bournemouth Crown Court yesterday.

The court heard the 49-year-old pocketed £39,921 while working at the firm Aramark Ltd, which provides catering services to JP Morgan.

Sadie Rizzo, prosecuting, said employees at the global banking giant use a cashless card system to purchase food at the firm’s Bournemouth base whereby staff put money into a machine which credits their cards.

Jump, who was on a £22,000 salary, was responsible for collecting money from the machine and banking the cash.

But on seven different occasions between March 2012 and January 2014, he deposited large sums of money, ranging from £3,000 to £10,000, into his personal bank account, Ms Rizzo told the court. His crimes were uncovered in February this year after an internal audit found several ‘irregularities’ in the accounts.

James Newton-Price, defending, said Jump, who pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud by abuse of position and one charge of concealing criminal property, said Jump invested around £17,000 in shares, which have since reduced in value to around £15,000 and the rest remained in his bank account.

Mr Price said Jump, who had no previous criminal convictions, was at a loss as to why he stole the money. He added: “There was management reorganisation which changed his job title and effectively doubled his workload with no increase to his salary. Maybe there was a degree of resentment.”

Judge Samuel Wiggs said the only explanation for Jump’s crimes were ‘greed’.

Describing the offences as ‘very serious’, Judge Wiggs said he could have faced an 18 month prison sentence.

He said: “As a matter of mercy, nothing more than that, I will reduce it to 12 months but it will not be suspended. I see no reason for that.”

Jump was also ordered to pay £39,921 in compensation to Aramark Ltd within 28 days.