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A former Birmingham City Council employee has been convicted of stealing £22,000 by forging invoices - but has avoided being jailed. Behram Kotwal, an ex-commercial manager at Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr , forged invoices to customers of Alexander Stadium using his personal bank details in place of the council's. His role was to generate business for Alexander Stadium by taking bookings to rent the facilities for sports events, funeral wakes and parties. READ MORE: New CCTV that could crack eight-year riddle of firework murder tragedy READ MORE: Daughter of JLR worker killed in unsolved firework attack says 'I live a nightmare every day' But Birmingham City Council began an investigation that led to the prosecution after a school contacted the council to report that a payment for their sports day did not process. An officer noticed that incorrect bank details were being used and reported it to the council's corporate fraud team. An investigation revealed that Kotwal had issued 23 forged invoices, of which 19 resulted in successful payment diversions to his personal bank account, totalling £21,938.98 between December 2023 and April last year. Kotwal pleaded guilty to one offence of fraud by abuse of position following a hearing at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on July 8. Kotwal was later sentenced to 16 months custody, suspended for 18 months, during a hearing at Birmingham Crown Court on November 4. He was also ordered to undertake 10 days of rehabilitation and perform 180 hours of unpaid work. An investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act has been commenced to try to recover the stolen funds. Kotwal had already re-paid some of the monies prior to the court hearing. Mr Kotwal claimed that he never intended to defraud Birmingham City Council and was only trying to speed up the booking process by arranging for customers to pay him directly. The council has reviewed and strengthened its invoicing processes to mitigate the risk of this happening again. Speaking after the case, Coun Rob Pocock, Cabinet Member for Transformation, Governance and HR, said: "For anyone to abuse their position as a trusted public servant for their own personal gain is utterly shameful and absolutely not something we will tolerate. "As we have done in this case, the council will use the full extent of the law to root out and prosecute individuals who abuse their position and bring them to justice. "Once the potential fraud was uncovered, the council immediately initiated an investigation and quickly dealt with the offence. We have also tightened up our internal controls to minimise the risk of this happening again."
