A former Kent County Council energy chief has been jailed for seven years for committing a £2.1 million fraud.

Ross Knowles extracted the cash from British Gas and used some of it for such luxuries as a £50,000 Jaguar car and holidays.

Judge David Caddick told the 42-year-old Cambridge graduate when passing sentence today: “It was a carefully planned and executed fraud over a sustained period.

"You let yourself and your family down and led the risk of erosion of public confidence in public office.

“I have no doubt the offence was motivated by greed. Your various attempts to justify it are simply just that. It was pure naivety.”

Knowles, of Larking Drive, Allington, Maidstone, was convicted of one charge of fraud involving British Gas and cleared of a second involving NPower by direction of the judge.

The father-of-two, who denied any wrongdoing, earned £66,000 a year as head of energy procurement for the south east region, which buys gas and electricity for KCC and other local authorities at the best prices.

Prosecutor Allison Clare told Maidstone Crown Court the fraud was simple.

Known as Laser (Local Authority South East Region), it was a large body dealing with “an awful lot of money” buying energy for KCC and about 120 other local authorities.

The gas contract was with British Gas and the electricity contract with NPower.
Knowles asked British Gas to add an extra charge at their end as a “comfort blanket”, which would be reclaimed by KCC and Laser at the end of the year.

“British Gas charged that extra amount and during the course of the year a huge amount built up as a result,” said the prosecutor.

After a year of the contract running, Knowles submitted an invoice for repayment of part of the money, about £400,000. But the cash went into his own account.

“It is a remarkably simple way of him extracting money and taking it for himself,” said Miss Clare.

Keir Monteith, defending, said out of the £2.1 million, the loss that was not recoverable was about £100,000.

“Something very strange happened to Mr Knowles, making him make the worst judgement of his life,” he added.

Judge Caddick said: “This is not a case of sophisticated hiding of money. It came into your bank account and there it stayed.

“The result is much of the £2.1 million has been, and probably will be, recovered. Even so, you did spend £140,000, much of which is unlikely to be recovered.”