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A TEENAGE restaurant manager from Heacham lived the high life in London hotels posing as an employee with top financial institutions, a court heard. Ashley Burt (19), of 16 Cheney Crescent, stayed at three hotels - the Milestone at Kensington, the Four Seasons in Park Lane, and the Crowne Plaza at Victoria, City of Westminster magistrates Court heard on Thursday. He was sentenced to 120 hours community service as part of a year's community order and ordered to pay compensation and costs of £1,117.62 to the hotel victims after admitting three offences of fraud. On January 29 this year at the Milestone, Burt claimed he worked for the Queen's bank, Coutts, with the intention of getting accommodation, the court was told. Two days later at the Four Seasons he claimed he was with Rothschild Asset Management. That same day he checked into the Crowne Plaza, purporting to be an employee of Schroders asset management company. District Judge Tony Snow told Burt: “You have shown some cunning and skill causing substantial loss to the companies. It's fortunate they had a security operation in place which allowed you to be caught early.” The judge added that there was “more sophistication” after the initial offence. He said the offences were committed after Burt left home, came to London and decided “to defraud hotel chains.” Emma Jones, prosecuting, told the court : “He booked into the Milestone Hotel and stated Coutts & Co would be paying and the hotel was to receive a fax in due course. His credit card was swiped and declined. He was asked for his passport for security.” She said he left on 31 January, leaving a £564.35 bill unpaid and then went to the Crown Plaza where he ran up a bill of £482.27. Ms Jones said that a fax was received at the Crowne Plaza purporting to be from Schroders saying they would 'bear the costs'. However, when their security checked with the company they were told he was not an employee and the police were contacted. At the Four Seasons, Ms Jones said he stayed there after producing a fax said to be from Rothschild's. However, when Rothschild's was contacted they stated they would not bear the costs of his stay as he was not an employee. No amount was claimed by them because he was only there a short time. When interviewed later, Burt, who was previously of good character, said he had sent the fax messages from a laptop computer with the aim of gaining accommodation and admitted he had no intention of paying. source: http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news?articleid=2909673 | Daily Extras! Eclat Me | Success Tip of the Day| 1DailyDiversion| Eclat Web - Must Visit Websites! A Beautiful Pic Every Day! Word of the Day| Quotation of the Day| Make Money! Immigration News! Desire- WOW Stuff! Stock Mkt Updates |
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