Former Halifax consultant charged after abusing his position for years
A finance consultant, who was a contestant on ITV’s The Chase, stole over £53,000 from his former customers’ estates.
Daniel Hodgin worked for Halifax in Leyland and used his inside knowledge to swindle thousands of pounds from deceased customers.
Hodgin was finally sentenced at Preston Crown Court after going years undetected.
He even in 2017 won a share of £14,000 after appearing on The Chase.
He was caught after Lloyds Banking Group, who own Halifax, were alerted to two fraudulent payments worth over £30,000 from a woman who was known to have been dead at the time.
This prompted an internal investigation which showed a number of deceased customers account had been reopened with transfers being sent to different accounts.
The Court was told how Hodgin set up standing orders from these accounts and also had fraudulent loans paid into these accounts, and then transferring the money to himself.
Prosecutor David Clarke told the court Hodgin’s reasoning was because “his health wasn’t good, his wife was unwell, and he had carried out the frauds because of financial difficulties. He had over-borrowed on loans and credit cards”.
Anna Chestnutt, who acted as defence, stated:
“Through his work in the banking industry he was personally involved in helping people get out of debt. Against that backdrop it must have been truly embarrassing to admit to his employers he was in such crushing debt. He had been in debt since 2008 but kept it all hidden. He acknowledges the bereaved families would have been distressed that he took from the estates that should have gone to their families.”
Judge Medland KC said:
“For reasons that aren’t satisfactorily explained, you began to lead a life which was significantly beyond your legitimate means, and racked up debts. You sought to satisfy this and get yourself out of trouble in a very sophisticated, cunning and prolonged way.
You misused the knowledge you had of the systems in the bank where you were working, and robbing Peter to pay Paul – but you were the ultimate beneficiary of these funds. It will follow from a description of your career to date that you have no previous convictions.
That is mitigation, but it is also balanced against the fact that that was why you had such a job in the first place. By some process, eventually, all the money will be repaid – either by taking money from your pension entitlement or by some other process.”
Hodgin was given a 20-month suspended sentence an given 200 hours of unpaid work. He will also be subjected to a Proceeds of crime hearing on December 9th.
