An accountant who stole more than £62,000 from an alternative medicine company in Stroud to finance his gambling addiction has been jailed for two years and eight months.

Edward Humphrey, 42, of Overbrook Road, Hardwicke, abused his position as bookkeeper for In-Light Ltd, which provides homeopathic medicine courses in Rodborough, by making unauthorised bank transfers to his own Stroud company.

After just six months at In-Light, Humphrey began making a total of 70 different transfers over a period of 18 months to his firm Stroud Accounting Solutions Ltd., Gloucester Crown Court heard on Friday.

“I felt personally betrayed by Humphrey as we had put all our trust in him. He was treated as part of the team,” said Mrs Amanda Norland, a director of the company, in a statement.

“It is very difficult to accept how much he has deceived us over two years. Along with every single discovery we found that in addition to stealing from us he hadn’t done the job properly. We’d been overcharged for the work he did do.

“We had to put on a brave face in the office as we didn’t tell the rest of the team what had happened.”

Humphrey was appointed in February 2017 after impressing In-Light bosses as a knowledgeable and likeable accountant and developed a position of trust in the company, said Prosecutor Ian Fenny.

In-Light Limited is the holding company for the School of Homeopathy, The School of Health and Yondercott Press, which offers alternative medicine courses, seminars, books and webinars focusing on homeopathy, herbal medicine and yoga.

“Humphrey had access to the company’s main computer, which was password protected and only allowed access to three people,” said Mr Fenny.

“Once he had logged in he had access to the company’s electronic financial account and over a period of a year-and-a-half he raided the funds contained therein.”

The court heard the fraud came to light when Humphrey made a duplicate payment for an invoice of £2,400 which the directors already knew had been paid and transferred it to Stroud Accounting Solutions Ltd.

Humphrey then tried to bluff his way out of his fraudulent activity before admitting his guilt, the court heard.

The court was told he had obtained £74,854 but paid back £12,440, leaving the outstanding loss to the company as £62,410.

Ellen McAnaw defending said: “Prior to Humphrey obtaining his bookkeeping position he had built up a significant debt, which was made worse when he turned to gambling in an attempt to work his way out of this debt.

“He then developed an addiction for gambling, with consequences that resulted in him being caught for fraudulently obtaining money from the company he worked for.

“His fraudulent activity wasn’t to fund a lavish lifestyle. He has since suffered from mental health issues, which resulted in him being in hospital for three months.

“He has since found alternative employment in a completely different field.”

Humphrey admitted dishonestly abusing his position as bookkeeper by fraudulently making unauthorised bank transfers from the company’s business account to his own account between January 1, 2018 and July 31, 2019, and make a gain for himself of £62,410.

Sentencing Humphrey, the judge, Recorder Sarah Regan said: “You eventually owned up to what had being going on. You then stated that you had ‘messed up’.

“That was an understatement. The company still doesn’t know if they have unearthed all of your fraudulent activity.

“You also committed this offence while on licence from a previous prison sentence.

“I accept your remorse is genuine and that you wish to pay back all the funds your fraudulently obtained.”

The judge sentenced Humphrey to two years and eight months in prison and warned him that he was likely to be subject to a proceeds of crime hearing in October this year.