Man jailed for swindling Harborough business out of nearly £700,000 - and leaving thousands of local holidaymakers devastated

The former finance chief of a Market Harborough travel operator has been jailed after he swindled the firm out of almost £700,000.
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Jamie Tann, 38, siphoned off an astonishing £685,648 – forcing Diamond Shortbreak Holidays to go bust.

The company, based at Compass Point, off Northampton Road, Harborough, went into administration in March 2017 owing £10 million.

As a result 10,000 local holidaymakers were left devastated after 1,500 trips had to be scrapped.

Jamie TannJamie Tann
Jamie Tann

Tann, of Savernake Drive, Corby, admitted four counts of fraud by false representation and three counts of false accounting.

The finance director also pleaded guilty to one count of perverting the course of justice.

Tann was jailed for three years four months at Leicester Crown Court on Friday February 28.

His ruthless greed also cost 78 posts at his gutted employer’s two offices, with 52 workers in Harborough and 26 in South Africa losing their jobs.

Diamond Shortbreak Holidays sounded the alert in February 2017.

They called in police after becoming suspicious that senior officer Tann had made a number of payments which had raised concern.

Detectives immediately launched a high-powered investigation.

And they discovered that between March 2015 and January 2017, totally-trusted Tann had bled off £685,648 from company accounts.

He also falsified company records in a bid to cover his tracks.

The perverting the course of justice charge related to a false statement Tann gave in June 2016 in a High Court case over an unpaid credit card bill owed by the company.

After seeing him jailed, Det Con Aaron Horn, who led the Leicestershire Police probe, said: “Jamie Tann’s actions caused such financial loss to the company that it put them into administration leaving a significant number of people unemployed.

“It left 10,000 holiday makers with no bookings, who had to make claims against credit card companies to get their money back.”

He added: “Tann held a position of responsibility at Diamond and was entrusted to protect the company’s interests.

“Tann abused this trust when he caused money to be taken from the company accounts leaving the company with no chance to recover from the losses suffered.

“Although Tann had made significant efforts to prevent his fraud and its extent being discovered, our investigation was able to evidence his actions leaving him with no choice to admit his guilt in court.”