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Blacker Dread jailed over fake invoice scam

By | Published on Tuesday 24 June 2014

Blacker Dread

Reggae producer Blacker Dread, who ran a record store of the same name in Brixton, has been jailed for two and half years for his involvement in a scam that saw £700,000 stolen from a Sutton-based company called IMCD Ltd.

According to this Brixton Blog, the turn of events has led to the closure of Dread’s record shop, which was photographed with a hand-written notice carrying the word “ooops” in the window.

Dread, real name Steve Burnett-Martin, was accused of fraudulently receiving £230,411 from IMCD Ltd via his record store, after a former employee in the accounts department at the Sutton company, Lorna Martin, started processing fake invoices.

Martin also used the scheme to pay monies into her own bank account and those of four other people. The scam ran from September 2011 to August 2012, and the fraudulent payments were only uncovered after Martin had left the company.

According to the Croydon Advertiser, Martin, Burnett-Martin and the four other beneficiaries were all found guilty of money laundering at Croydon Crown Court last month, with Martin also found guilty of theft. The defendants were sentenced on Friday with Burnett-Martin receiving two and half years.

Blacker Dread was also the founder of the Brixton Splash festival, though the Brixton Blog says that he resigned as a director of that event earlier this year.



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