Director duped company of Rs 9 cr in 6 months, held

The accused would receive cash from members and only deposit a part and pocketed the rest

The accused would receive cash from members and only deposit a part and pocketed the rest

The city police nabbed the director of business development firm, who was on the run after cheating the company of over Rs 9 crore. The case came to light during the company's 6-month audit and a major discrepancy was discovered in the deposit amounts collected and deposited into the company account, by the accused Patrick Thomas.


Just a little, sir: The accused admitted to having swindled around Rs
50 lakh. Representation pic

Thomas used to collect lakhs of rupees in way of investments from members on a daily basis. "He collected the amounts and deposited only a part and pocketed the rest. Within six months, he managed to swindle Rs 9 crore and went underground when the accounts department questioned him about the variations in his deposits," Ulsoor Police Inspector M K Thammiah told MiD DAY.

Interstate job
"Thomas had also served in the Kerala branch of the company and later transferred to Bangalore a few months ago, but continued to siphon off the cash and hide it in his hometown -- Kudlur in Tamil Nadu," Thammiah added. His modus operandi according to the police was to collect the cash from members and after depositing a part into the company's account, he would keep a larger chunk for himself and send a tampered deposit slip to his head office.

On the run
He initially avoided the company officials when they tried to contact him, but later went underground, following which a complaint has been filed in Kerala. Based on the complaint, the Kerala police sought help from their counterparts in Karnataka to nab Thomas. The cops caught him while he was hiding in his hometown and recovered some official documents, a car and a substantial amount of cash. During questioning, he admitted to having swindled around Rs 50 lakh, but company officials allege that he has amassed Rs 1.9 crore from their Bangalore branch and Rs 8 crore from Kerala.

"We have arrested him under cheating and remanded him to judicial custody before alerting the Kerala police about the charges," Thammiah said adding that the Kerala police would seek his custody for further investigations. The company officials refused to comment on this issue when MiD DAY tried to contact them.