Betfair is under pressure to hand tens of thousands of pounds to the victim of a fraudster and gambling addict, after appearing to miss multiple opportunities to stop the “VIP” customer betting with stolen money.
Andrew Morford, a former finance manager, was given a two-year suspended sentence on Wednesday, after admitting a £340,000 [$457,000] fraud against his former employer, carried out between May 2019 and February 2024.
In sentencing remarks, Judge Silas Reid described Morford’s gambling addiction, which led to him losing more than £1m on Betfair’s platform, as a “very significant mitigation factor”.
The betting exchange, part of the £28bn global gambling corporation Flutter Entertainment, appears to have overlooked signs of Morford’s downward spiral, according to documents seen by the Guardian.
