'It’s all lies — I made the drivers up, I'm a fraud'

A STOCKTON man who was director of a Darlington recruitment firm made up fictional lorry drivers’ names and billed for fake HGV journeys to pay off his drug debt.

- By ESTHER HALLIGAN [e-mail] @TeessideLive

Matthew Eales was running the drivers’ arm of Imperial Recruitment Group in Darlington in 2020, when he decided to keep one client account away from other staff. Eales, 39, told his three admin staff that he had a “pre-existing relationship” with the Pollocks company account and that they were “not to touch it”.

But in conjunction with two pals, Eales billed Pollocks for journeys that were never made, by drivers that didn’t exist.

Pollocks paid the invoices and Eales arranged for the cash to go into the bank accounts of his pals Tony Johnson and David White - who have also appeared in court and admitted their guilt.

Eales, a father of four, was in the grip of cocaine addiction and told his employers that he owed over £20,000 to multiple dealers. Teesside Crown Court has heard that he had a lot of responsibility in his role and that, once Covid hit, he was also responsible for home-schooling his kids.

The game was up for the director in September 2021 when he took some time off work. He told his fellow directors that he had problems at home and he was urged to stay off work.