A gambling addict who turned to swindling his employer out of £92,000 worth of games systems has walked free from court.

Grant Johnson used his husband’s account to order hundreds of consoles before putting them through at zero cost, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The 30-year-old stole 328 PlayStation 4 consoles; 75 Switch consoles; 67 Switch mini consoles; and 24 xBox 1s before his scam was uncovered.

Joe Hedworth, prosecuting, said the defendant was working for the BT group when started stealing the games consoles in December 2020 and selling them on.

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The court heard how he used his husband’s account without his knowledge to pull of the scam.

He added: “He said he had committed the thefts to pay of a gambling debt.”

Most of the stolen items were sold to one person, who was interviewed by police but did not face any charges, and 24 games consoles were recovered by police, Mr Hedworth added.

Johnson, of Caldwell Green, Darlington, pleaded guilty to theft from an employer.

Lewis Kerr, in mitigation, said his client had been mired in spiralling debts from his gambling addiction and loans used to start up a business with his husband.

He urged the judge to pass a non-custodial sentence to help his client address his addiction problems after his husband had suffered mental health problems following his arrest.

The court heard how the defendant also helped to look after his husband’s child from a previous relationship.

Recorder Marco Giulliani passed a two-year community order and told the defendant that he needed to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work while addressing his gambling addiction problem.

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“Up until you committed these offences, you were a hardworking man of good character,” he said.

“It’s clear from your pre-sentence report that you have got into significant debt through many reasons, one being your addiction to gambling and borrowing money from wherever you could to pay your debts.

“You gambled throughout your 20s accruing debt without doing anything to address that problem.

“You and your husband took on more debt to set up a business leaving you with a total debt of £110,000 which is a significant amount of money for anyone.”