An accounts manager with a gambling problem has been jailed after stealing £3.8million from a family-run shipping company, forcing it into liquidation and leaving 30 people unemployed.

Paul Hawkridge, 37, of The Fairway, Leigh, received six years for two counts of fraud and three years for money laundering, to run concurrently, at Basildon Crown Court yesterday.

He admitted the offences at court on October 10.

Police started their investigation into Hawkridge in June 2016 after officers received a call from Orient Worldwide Shipping Ltd, an international shipping company based in Basildon.

Investigators found that Hawkridge, who was the company’s accounts manager, had taken £3.8million since 2011 by creating bulk payments to the company and then transferred deposits into his own personal accounts.

He had stolen from the company that had employed him since the age of 18 and had paid for his exams before systematically covering it up over several years.

The majority of the cash had been spent on Hawkridge’s gambling lifestyle. He also used the cash to make overpayments on his mortgage, helping him to pay off the mortgage on his family home 15 years early.

He was arrested at his home address in July 2016.

Det Con Angie Coxon, of Basildon CID, said: “Hawkridge’s actions were selfish, calculative and devious.

"He stole millions of pounds from the very employers who took him under their wing and helped train and support him emotionally and financially.

“His colleagues were also left redundant by his actions and were forced to find other jobs. This fraud caused trauma and had a massive impact on the victims and their families.

“In this case the effect has been severe, the reputation of an upstanding, hardworking company has been destroyed and their futures irretrievably altered both from a personal aspect and within the shipping business.”