Wage blunder worker in court

Christopher Jones, of Alder Grove, Ingol, Preston, had been employed by the Ancient Oak pub on Merry Trees Lane, Cottam.

It’s then brewery, Mitchell and Butlers plc, had another employee of the same name, magistrates were told, who was supposed to receive a severance payment of £18,000 on February 13 last year. However a clerical error was made by the firm and Jones was accidentally paid the money in to his bank account, and promptly went on a spending spree.

The bench heard the defendant had withdrawn the money and spent it between February 13 and 28.

Mitchell’s later withheld unpaid wages of £931.09 after discovering the theft. Today a spokesman for the brewery said: “ We don’t comment on individual employee matters.”

The defendant gave a no comment interview to police and it is still unclear what he spent the money on.

He will be sentenced on August 2.

The case comes days after the Evening Post reported when Preston dad Shohab Jalil, 35, from Harewood Road, Deepdale, was mistakenly paid more than a half a million pounds in a Preston City Council computer glitch.

He said he believed at first it was a “gift from God” for all the volunteering work he had done.

But the married father-of-four, a former carer who works at a Leyland takeaway, was heavily in debt and went on to admit he knew the six figure credit balance was not his when he started to spend it and pay off his debts.

By the time police arrived at his home in at 10.50pm on January 21, 2015, he

admitted he had already spending £36,000 of it - transferring £23,900 to his friend Barkat Ali Yousaf, 36, who was equally in dire financial trouble.