A ’deceitful’ insurance administrator has been jailed for two years for stealing more than £200,000 from his employer.

Greg Nicholas Taylor, 30, spent the money on his drugs and gambling addiction.

He appeared in the dock for sentencing at the Court of General Gaol Delivery on Monday with two black eyes and his arm in a sling.

His defence advocate Paul Rodgers told Deemster Alastair Montgomerie: ’Regrettably he was assaulted on Friday because of a drug debt. Someone assaulted him on the assumption that he was going to be sentenced today.’

The court heard that Taylor stole the money during a nine-month period while working as an insurance administrator at Templeton Insurance Ltd.

He manipulated the payment process to transfer money directly into his bank accounts.

Taylor, of Royal Court, Onchan, admitted the theft of £213,068 from Templeton Insurance Ltd and a charge of simple possession of cocaine.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Elizabeth Grayton, executive chairman of Templeton Insurance, described the defendant as ’one of the most selfish people I’ve ever met’.

She said: ’This was a complete breach of trust. Now I trust no one at all.’

Deemster Montgomerie said: ’Your offending has had a devastating impact on all the staff as well as the business itself.’

He considered there was no reason to warrant suspending the sentence, bearing in mind the sustained period of the thefts and the fact this was a ’small company that could ill afford to stand such losses’.

He jailed him for a total of two years for the theft, with a one month sentence for the cocaine possession to run concurrently.

The Deemster noted that Taylor had been punished enough in relation to the drugs, with the beating he had received last week.

Defence advocate Mr Rogers said his client had the ’twin demons’ of drugs and gambling addiction, which were a ’toxic combination’.

He said: ’It is evident that this is a man who has had issues with gambling and drug addiction for a considerable period of time.

’He has sought help for many years and regrettably he still has those issues.’

Prosecutor James Robinson told the court that Taylor had worked for Templeton Insurance between February 2017 and February this year when he was suspended due to an internal investigation at the company.

Batch payment documents were found in the drawers of Taylor’s desk which had been altered by him. He would enter invoices onto the company’s payment system and then hand a print-out to be authorised by two signatories using a card reader.

The card reader then produced a code to authorise the payments. Taylor would then alter the account details on payments so that the money was sent to accounts which belonged to him.

On January 27, Taylor was stopped by police while driving a Range Rover and found in possession of three wraps of cocaine. After being stopped he told police: ’There’s more in my flat.’

In total, 7.6g of the drug was found, with a street value of £760.

One of his colleagues, in another victim impact statement, said: ’He implicated me and the other authorisers. This has taken a toll on all the staff.’

Group financial controller Nigel Chase said: ’He’s a very deceitful, manipulative man who cares for no one but himelf.’