Popular golf course’s manager convicted of defrauding own club

The manager of a popular English golf course has been convicted of defrauding his own club.

Stover Golf Club in Devon was left reeling after general manager Jonathan Wright, 54, had been found to have siphoned money by transferring cash from the club’s account to his own.

It emerged that in the space of five years, Wright defrauded the Newton Abbot parkland venue to the tune of almost £35,000.

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As reported by Devon Live, Exeter Crown Court heard this week that Wright attempted to avoid being caught by producing fake invoices and invoicing corporate members with his own account details rather than the club’s account.

In total, Wright defrauded the club £34,539 from a period of March 2018 until September 2023.

That included up to £2,000 each from Stover’s clients Finlake Holiday Park and Devon Tourmasters, sums which were supposed to go into the club.

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It was heard that the misappropriation of funds was only discovered when an account manager looked at the books amid rumours about cash flow problems.

At that stage, the police were brought in and Wright was arrested.

He avoided prison this week but was handed an 18-month suspended sentence with 100 hours of unpaid work, as well as eight sessions for rehabilitation with probation.

It was determined Wright had strong mitigation and can be rehabilitated, despite what Recorder Christopher Quinlan KC called a “considerable breach of trust”.