Ex-Ofcom IT chief is jailed for IT fraud

THE EX-IT CHIEF of the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has been jailed for using his technology skills to steal from his employer.

"Jurgen Whitehouse, 37, of Exeter Road, Welling, Kent was yesterday Tuesday 7 June sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court for fraud," reads a report on the Metropolitan Police web site.

"Whitehouse had previously pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on 10 May to one count of fraud where he admitted to abusing his senior position in IT to defraud his employer, the communications regulator, OFCOM of £522,123 between July 2008 and April 2009."

According to the Metropolitan Police Whitehouse has paid some of this money back, which is good because Ofcom could probably use some of it to produce a report on why we need faster broadband.

We do not know precisely how the money was lifted from the regulator, but given that it was around half a million quid and was taken within the space of nine months, it cannot have been that hard to spot.

Maybe it was though, the allegation was first reported to the police in March of last year by Ofcom's financial controller, and then investigated by the Met's Economic and Specialist Crime Unit.

Whitehouse was arrested the following June and charged in February of this year. µ