A COMPANY rep who swindled his Halesowen bosses out of £100,000 with phone orders for fictitious firms has been jailed for more than two years.

Stephen Clark bought hundreds of phones using cash from the accounts of the EBC Group − where he worked for three years − before forwarding them to businesses he had set up or were being run by friends.

Southwark Crown Court heard that Clark ran the scam between October 2012 and June 2013 before bosses became suspicious at being landed with bills from network providers for phones they never received.

The West Midlands Regional Fraud Team launched an investigation and discovered the 42-year-old had pocketed around £100,000 from selling on the phones.

When police − interested in Clark as part of a drugs case − seized his car they found more than £200,000 hidden in the boot.

Clark, of Saxons Meadows, Hartlebury, was jailed for 12 months after admitting three counts of theft from the Hagley Road office technology and communication solutions firm.

He was also found guilty of money laundering relating to the cash find for which he will spend an additional 15 months behind bars.

Investigating officer detective constable Alistair Gadd said: "Clark has left a black hole in the accounts of his former employer, but a Proceeds of Crime Act application is under way to seize assets we can prove were funded through criminal means.

"None of the phones have been recovered − they were quickly sold on with Clark pocketing the cash − whilst the money laundering was linked to a Metropolitan Police drug distribution inquiry.

"Clark’s career is in ruins and we’ll be pushing hard to recover every penny of the money he swindled from the company."