Time on the inside: fraudster who conned his employer with fake overtime claims jailed

A contracts manager who changed bank account details on his company’s payroll system and then submitted fictious overtime claims to accounts he had access to has been jailed.

Hoover Yasno Moreno, 36, of Spain, tried to pocket almost £170,000 by diverting money into his account or accounts he had access to. He then got transfers made to him so that he could spend the money on a house was buying off-plan in Colombia, along with several holidays.

Yasno Moreno and his associates were sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on Tuesday 21 February 2023.

Hoover Yasno Moreno pleaded guilty to fraud and two counts of possessing criminal property. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment with two years supervision upon release.
Julian Giraldo Martinez, 39, of Norwood Road, West Norwood, pleaded guilty to possessing criminal property. He was sentenced to a 12 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £200 in costs.
Cosme Soto Jaramillo, 45, of Millender Walk, South Bermondsey, pleaded guilty to possessing criminal property. He was sentenced to a 12 month community order, 40 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £200.
John Jairo Diaz Zapata, 41, of Halsmere Road, Camberwell, pleaded guilty to possessing criminal property. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment suspended for 12 months, order to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and pay £400 in costs.
Esefania Toro Arroyave, 30, of Archer Street, Soho, pleaded guilty to possessing criminal property. She was sentenced to a 12 month community order and ordered to pay costs of £150.
Detective Constable John Quayle, from the City of London Police, said:

“Yasno Moreno had access to systems which allowed him to change payroll details for individual employees and he did so on many occasions without those individuals realising until they hadn’t received their wages.

“To put it simply, Yasno Moreno was greedy and thought he could get away with pocketing thousands of pounds. But he was caught out and will now pay for his greed with time behind bars.”

Yasno Moreno was employed as a contract manager which provided cleaning services to a financial institution in the City of London.

He was solely responsible for the recruitment of staff and submitting claims for overtime, as well as being the point of contact for the cleaners and the liaison between the external company and financial institution. He joined the company in December 2016 and in February 2017, he took over the submission of ‘one-off’ overtime claims.

Yasno Moreno diverted wages into accounts in either his name or to accounts which he had some control over. Those who had fraudulent overtime claims submitted on their behalf were a mix of genuine employees working at the premises and those who had never worked in the building in the City.

The fraud came to light when one of the genuine employees complained they had not been paid. The company’s payroll department disputed it, but the employee provided bank statements as evidence of no pay.

Upon further investigation, it was uncovered that the bank details held for the employee had been changed without their knowledge and excessive overtime claims had been submitted in their name.

Other employees also claimed similar stories. In total, the cleaning services company were able to provide evidence of eight employees of having their bank details changed by Yasno Moreno and having excessive overtime claims paid to Yasno Moreno or accounts he had access to.

It is estimated that the total gross losses to the company were £233,497.62, with the majority of the money (£180,542.60) made up of ‘one off’ payments. Of the net amount, £58,580 was paid directly into accounts in Yasno Moreno’s name and £41,236 was transferred from other accounts into Yasno Moreno’s.

All of Yasno Moreno’s associates involved had money paid into bank accounts in their name, before much of it was transferred directly to Yasno Moreno.

Julian Giraldo Martinez allowed Yasno Moreno to use his details to set him up as an employee for his company for two months. He received £1,628.23 into his own account between May to June 2017 and kept 10 per cent for himself and forwarded the rest to Yasno Moreno. Then without Giraldo Martinez’s knowledge, Yasno Moreno continued to use his details but sent the wages to a different account.

Cosme Soto Jaramillo also allowed Yasno Moreno to use his details in the same way. Four payments totalling £4,199.51 were made to his account between January to May 2017. Yasno Moreno then continued to use Soto Jaramillo’s details without his permission, with the funds going to another account.

John Diaz Zapata was a genuine employee for the same company, but received £20,046.72 in wages, which were paid using Soto Jaramillo’s details without his knowledge, into his bank account.

Estefania Toro Arroyave allowed her account to be used to receive £14,886.10 between February to November 2017.

During his police interviews, Yasno Moreno answered no comment.