The former operations and administration manager of Billingsgate Fish Market has been found guilty of stealing more than £100,000 of traders’ rent by fraud.
Roshan Persad, 46, was convicted of six counts of theft, seven counts of false accounting and one count of fraud by abuse of position of trust at the Old Bailey today. He took cash and cheques, paid by fish market stallholders to the Corporation of London over an 18-month period to fund a gambling habit.
He tried to blame the missing money on security company G4S, saying five bags had been lost while being transported to the bank. But in truth, Persad had taken the money himself.
However, the Corporation caught him in April 2013. A month later, Persad was arrested and interviewed. The matter was then classified as a fraud and handed to the City of London Police to investigate.
Upon his conviction the Corporation released this statement:
“This was a gross breach of trust and we are pleased that the court reflected the seriousness of this case. This fraud involved public money and public servants should conduct themselves in a manner befitting their position. It was a sophisticated fraud where the defendant exploited his role at the Market. Once our checks uncovered the fraud we not only reported it to the City of London Police, who we have worked closely with, but we also immediately reviewed all of our procedures to make sure, as far as possible, that there could be no repeat. The City has a zero tolerance policy against fraud and will take the strongest course of action if this is discovered.”
The Corporation has since reviewed procedures and we now have faith that Billingsgate is once more running as it should.