London Philharmonic Orchestra defrauded of £2.3m

[Philidor]

Cameron Poole, the former finance director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, is being pursued for more than £2.3 million after allegedly defrauding the orchestra.

Cameron Poole, 35, is accused of taking the money to pay for flights, jewellery, artwork and an extension to his £900,000 house.

The LPO said it had no idea the money was missing until the Australian-born director left after four years in charge of the budget in 2008.

A High Court judge ruled in favour of the LPO and agreed that they could go after Mr Poole, a married father of three and committed Christian.

Mr Justice Field also continued an asset-freezing order which was imposed last November when the LPO believed £357,906 had gone missing.

Upon further investigation, it found that the scale of the alleged fraud was actually far greater, totalling £2,351,155.

Source

Poole's wife, Suzanne Poole, is a Conservative Councillor for Lambeth. She's on the shortlist to become an MP.

[Philidor]

The LPO's chief executive, Timothy Walker, also spoke for the first time about the embezzlement of £660,000 in funds by the orchestra's financial director, Cameron Poole. This month the LPO received a high court judgment of £2.3m against Poole, a sum that, according to Walker, relates to "the repercussions of [Poole's] trying to cover his tracks, which led to under-reporting expenditure and over-reporting income".

The LPO is also suing its bank, "who processed 48 forged cheques" and its "auditors, who failed to detect the fraud over three audits". Poole is rumoured to have used forged cheques to purchase expensive home furnishings.

Walker confirmed that Poole's assets had been frozen and his London house sold, meaning that "we will recover the funds". Walker said: "It's a sorry tale. But it has not got in the way of creating great music."

Source

[Florestan]

Bloody hell! I will be very interested to see how this pans out. ((((((LPO))))))