Birmingham University: former employee stole £5m to fund gambling

  

Gambling addict facing jail after stealing £5m

A GAMBLING addict is facing jail after he admitted stealing almost £5 million from Birmingham University.

Paul Sadler, the former managing director of Birmingham Research and Development Ltd, a trading subsidiary of the university,pleaded guilty to stealing the money from his firm between December 1994 and January 2008.

The company, from which Sadler, 49, from Hallow, Worcestershire, resigned shortly before his arrest, oversees the sale of rights to the university's 'intellectual property' around the world, including research and inventions.

Sadler's bookkeeper, Christine Eggleton, 51, of Rubery, also admitted theft of £2.1 million, again from BRDL, when the pair, who also pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to defraud by submitting false invoices, appeared at Birmingham Crown Court.

Last year Sadler, who was MD of the company for seven years, admitted to the Birmingham Sunday Mercury that he took the money to fund his gambling.