Christopher Riton-Hayward’s thefts were discovered when his boss at Banbury musical instrument shop One Man Band went to look for a keyboard, only to find it was not in the storeroom.
Detective work by the shop owner established that 73 items with a total retail value of £27,000 had been stolen over six months last year to be sold on eBay. Only half the goods were recovered.
But Riton-Hayward, 35, was able to walk from court with a suspended prison sentence on Thursday (September 28) after the judge decided he could be punished in the community.
Sentencing him to a year’s imprisonment suspended for 18 months, Recorder Rachel Drake said: “The offence that you fall to be sentenced for is very serious. You chose to take the easiest option to deal with your financial difficulties by stealing from the person that trusted you as an employee.
“What you did was not particularly sophisticated but it was a way of exploiting your position of trust.”
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Oxford Crown Court heard that Riton-Hayward had taken a £7,000 pay cut when he took on a job at One Man Band in March 2022 and was struggling financially.
He began stealing from his employer within months of taking the job and spent half a year taking items from the stock room before the thefts were discovered in December.
Boss David Cooper had gone to try and find a rare keyboard, which was showing as available on the company’s stock system. He could not find it.
Earlier this month, the magistrates’ court heard that a stroke of luck linked Riton-Hayward to an eBay account through which the stolen booty was being sold.
The company owner went to turn down the volume on the defendant’s Spotify account. He spotted that the Spotify account user name matched the name of the eBay account fencing the stolen goods.
When police searched Riton-Hayward’s canal boat they found in his bedroom keyboards stolen from One Man Band.
He was instantly remorseful when he was interviewed by the cops, coming clean about what he had done and apologising to his boss at the music shop.
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Prosecuting, Matthew Knight said a total of 73 items were stolen over the six months, ranging from expensive keyboards and other musical instruments to music stands.
The value of the items sold on eBay amounted to £6,035, according to checks of Riton-Hayward’s bank account.
The total retail value of what was stolen came to £27,000, which was covered by his insurers.
Riton-Hayward, who lives on a canal boat in Banbury, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to theft by an employee. He had no previous convictions and the offending was described as being out of character.
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Riton-Hayward outside the magistrates’ court (Image: Oxford Mail)
Mitigating, Leanne Ballato asked the judge to spare her client an immediate prison sentence. He was remorseful, was willing to pay compensation to his former boss, and the probation service deemed him a low-risk of reoffending.
The defendant wanted to apologise to Mr Cooper for ‘being inappropriate during the course of his employment with him’, the advocate said. He was currently unemployed but was actively looking for work.
As part of the suspended sentence, Riton-Hayward was ordered to do 60 hours of unpaid work, up to 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and comply with a six month mental health treatment requirement.
He must pay £1,000 in compensation.
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