A SENIOR chef was sentenced to six months in prison after cooking the books and stealing more than £7,000 from his catering firm.

Simon Yapp, of Ransom Avenue, off Bath Road, Worcester, admitted six charges of theft and six counts of falsifying accounts while he worked for Autograph Food Services.

The 23-year-old also asked for 26 further matters to be taken into consideration at Worcester Magistrates Court yesterday.

From April, 2002, Yapp worked as a senior chef and kitchen manager for the firm, which is based in Slough but has sub-contracts across the country.

In January, 2004, accounting irregularities were spotted and of 31 weekly cash sales returns, 23 were found to have conflicting information.

Abuse

Leslie Ashton, prosecuting, said the incidents represented a serious abuse of his position and urged magistrates to move sentencing to crown court for greater punishment.

"Money was unaccounted for, false information was recorded in sales return books and in total £7,661.60p was missing from the company accounts," she said.

"It's a substantial abuse of trust because he held a position of responsibility for the finances."

Chris Hilton, defending Yapp, cited similar cases in the past four years where magistrates' powers of sentencing had been sufficient.

"In the case of Griffiths in 2000, when a 44-year-old stole £7,300 over seven years, magistrates' powers were sufficient," he said.

"In the case of James, when £5,318 was taken, a 14-month sentence was reduced to nine.

"With your ability to impose 12 months in prison I would say you have enough power for this matter."

Miss Ashton also conceded that Yapp had made a partial admission to police during his first interview and "a full and frank admission" in his second.

However, magistrates pointed to the planned nature of the crimes, his relatively senior position and the length of time the deception continued.

Yapp was sentenced to two three-month prison sentences, to run consecutively.