A man who spent more than £27,000 on his former employer’s fuel car has been handed a suspended sentence after he was caught on CCTV.

Steven Green of Chapel Avenue, Wisbech St Mary, kept a fuel card belonging to the shed company he worked at as a driver in the town until July 2018.

Despite being asked to hand back all the company’s property, the 45-year-old kept the card used to buy employees’ fuel for their company vehicles.

Over the coming months between September 2018 and April last year, Green purchased a grand total of £27,268.65 worth of fuel with the card.

A court heard how company bosses noticed the large amount after reviewing the card balances in April last year and immediately cancelled the card.

Police investigating the incident visited the petrol stations in Guyhirn and Wisbech where the transactions had taken place.

Staff were able to verify Green was the person behind the purchases.

However, they only had CCTV footage for the last month, so officers were only able to obtain footage of Green’s final month of purchases.

During the officers’ visits to the petrol stations, it was also confirmed that Green had purchased a final £255 worth of fuel and when the card was declined he left without paying and said he would speak to his boss about the issue.

Officers from Norfolk Constabulary also confirmed they had done a stop check on Green in their area in January 2019 and reported he had a number of empty 25 litre containers in his vehicle.

During police interview, Green answered no comment, but later pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and making off without payment.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for 18 months at Cambridge Crown Court on Monday, October 19.

He was also ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and 50 days rehabilitation activity requirement.

Detective Constable, Ahmed Ishaq, who investigated, said: “It’s clear Green thought he could get away with using the fuel card and nothing was going to stop him until the company cancelled the card.

“He has defrauded the company out of a substantial amount of money and I am glad justice has been done today.”