Global Marketing Giant Omnicom Lost £500K To Fraudulent Employees

Suspended Sentence: Luke Ward

Two fraudsters, whose new lives in the Netherlands and Australia ended when their former employer discovered a half a million pound scam, have been sentenced.

Former colleagues at global giant Omnicom Media Group, Thomas Wilson-Ward, 36, and Luke Ward, 33, returned to the UK to face the music.

Accountant Wilson-Ward was the ringleader and pleaded guilty to defrauding the company of £519,000 between December, 2015 and March, 2019.

Croydon Crown Court heard he blew all the money on gambling, alcohol and cocaine.

Ward took over the fraud and along with Wilson-Ward pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the company of £83,000 between October, 2018 and March, 2019.

Wilson-Ward received three years imprisonment and Ward twenty months imprisonment, suspended for two years, plus 200 hours community service work and fifteen days of rehab.

He also spent the proceeds on alcohol and cocaine, plus paying off some credit card bills.

The company's corporate clients include Apple; Adidas; Nissan; Exxon Mobil and VW.

Prosecutor Stefan Hyman told the court Wilson-Ward was a purchase ledger manager, who had access to Omnicom’s computer and accountancy system and simply paid money into his own bank account.

“False invoices were manufactured of companies who provided services to Omnicom and a total of forty transfers were made to the defendant’s account.”

When Wilson-Ward was made redundant from the company’s London HQ in Southwark the fraud continued with Ward, who was employed as a contractor at the company.

By the time their scam was exposed Wilson-Ward was living in Amsterdam and Ward in Perth. “It is to their credit they are here,” said Mr Hyman.

Extradition proceedings were not necessary and both defendants voluntarily returned to the UK for interviews with the company and then the police.

Wilson-Ward’s lawyer Charlotte McNally told the court: “In the last three years he has sought to rebuild his life after feeling he had been sucked into the London media world whirlwind.

“He told the police he was in a dark place and had developed an addiction to gambling, alcohol and cocaine.”

Ward’s lawyer Rakesh Bhasin said: “He followed a method devised by Wilson-Ward after he helped his work colleague in the cover-up.

“He turned to cocaine and heavy drinking before moving to Australia with his partner. The family have now moved back to Kent.”

Recorder Nicholas Yeo told father-of-one Wilson-Ward: “You probably thought, in a sense, this was free money that could be taken from a large company with no real harm.

“From almost the first moment you started working at the company you were stealing from it and abused the trust you were given to feed your greed. It was flagrant and sophisticated.”

He told Ward: “Your involvement was far less, but you joined in.”

The fraud was a blow to morale amongst the defendants former colleagues and Recorder Yeo added: “There was an abuse of personal trust.

“You sit next to someone, who you think is working for the company, but they are syphoning off money for themselves.”