A Piccolino restaurant manager who stole £21,610 from the till has been spared jail after claiming he gave half the money to staff when the luxury eaterie chain began taking a share of their tips.
Mario D’Agostino, 61, exploited a customer loyalty scheme to skim money off the profits when bosses introduced a new policy of allowing diners to pay ‘optional surcharges’ on card payments instead of cash.
The father of three, who also has 12 grandchildren, said as a result the firm began taking a third share of the 10 per cent gratuities which should have gone to the waiters and chefs.
He claimed that it was to keep up morale that he fiddled the loyalty scheme, allowing him to take money out of the till to give to staff at the end of each week.
D’Agostino, who had worked at the Chester branch of the Italian restaurant chain since 2015, was reported to police after investigators from The Iceland Food Group – which owns the firm – were assigned to check an ‘unusually high’ level of success with the customer loyalty scheme.
Mario D’Agostino, 61, exploited a customer loyalty scheme to skim money off the profits while working at the Piccolino restaurant in Cheshire
D’Agostino had worked at the company’s Chester branch (pictured) since 2015
He claimed that it was to keep up morale that he fiddled the loyalty scheme, allowing him to take money out of the till to give to staff at the Chester restaurant (pictured) each week
It emerged that over the course of 10 months the manager had been creating fake customer accounts on the loyalty scheme then taking the £20 ‘welcome’ rewards which would normally be offered to diners who signed up.
When quizzed, D’Agostino insisted almost £11,000 of the missing money had been shared amongst the staff and claimed the rest had been spent on equipment at the eaterie.
He confessed: ‘I created a monster I could not stop. I feel relieved that I do not have to do it anymore. I do not have to keep looking over my shoulder.’
The company, which set up its first restaurant in Knutsford in Cheshire in 2000 and has 21 branches in its portfolio, admitted initially taking a two per cent cut of the 10 per cent optional service charge to cover ‘admin costs’ but subsequently dropped the administration fee altogether.
D’Agostino, from Buckley in Flintshire, North Wales, had potentially faced up to four years in jail after he admitted fraud by abuse of position at Chester Crown Court.
He has now been sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years along with 100 hours of unpaid work.
There was no order for compensation but a judge said the opportunity for civil recovery was open to his former employer.
The investigation began after bosses noticed the Chester restaurant appeared to have an exceptionally high take-up of customers signing up for the loyalty scheme between June 2021 and April 2022.
Jayne Morris prosecuting said: ‘Piccolino introduced the loyalty card scheme which gives customers an opportunity to collect points against their bills at any individual restaurants.
‘Customers sign up by email address to the loyalty scheme and receive a one-off £20 reward off their next visit.
‘But an inspection was carried out at Chester by a loss prevention officer from the Iceland Food Company.
‘Having looked at the data, he became convinced that a staff member or staff members created disposable emails to allow them to generate multiple club members loyalty cards.’
When quizzed, D’Agostino insisted almost £11,000 of the missing money had been shared amongst the staff working at the restaurant in Pepper Street, Chester (pictured)
The investigation found that as well as the £20 reward scheme being abused, additional points were added to the fake cards to ‘disguise’ their fraudulent use.
A cash equivalent to the £20 credit applied to a customer’s bill was taken from the till.
Miss Morris added: ‘When staff were searched a number of restaurant gift cards were found in the defendant’s safe.
‘When he was interviewed during an internal investigation, he admitted the offence saying he was under pressure to reach targets and while it was not an excuse he said the whole thing was totally wrong.’
In his basis of plea outlined to the court, D’Agostino said that when the company started offering diners the chance to pay a 10 per cent ‘optional surcharge’ in place of a tip, it also encouraged them to sign up to the membership scheme and staff were given targets to reach.
He claimed the company was initially taking one third of the surcharge meant for staff and that he decided to use the scheme to recoup some of the money that was being taken by the company and share it out among staff.
He also said he was not the only member of staff involved as he said fraudulent transactions were carried out when he was not on site.
The money accrued by the fraud was put into a safe until the end of the week, before being put in envelopes and shared among staff.
D’Agostino said he kept a record sheet of the tips he gave staff and claimed he did not take for himself anywhere near the £21,610 that the company lost as the money was split between wokers.
He also said there were times when he would purchase expensive items for the store out of his own money due to delivery issues and he would reimburse himself from the company’s petty cash.
Miss Morris said: ‘Despite the defendant saying that he did not receive all of the money himself, he was the general manager, therefore the ringleader of the fraud.
‘It was abuse of a position of power and trust and responsibility. The fraud was £21,610 irrespective of who received the full benefit.
An investigation found that as well as the £20 reward scheme being abused, additional points were added to the fake cards to ‘disguise’ their fraudulent use at the Chester venue (pictured)
D’Agostino was sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years along with 100 hours of unpaid work, at his trial at Chester Crown Court (pictured)
‘His own bank account had £11,000 in cash deposits over the relevant period of time. The whole scheme was initiated and thought of by the defendant.’
D’Agostino had 26 dishonesty offences on his record, with the most recent being fro 1997.
His lawyer Eve Salter said: ‘Ultimately he was trying to keep the team together due to the impact on the tips provided to staff.
‘He was trying to keep up morale but ultimately recognises that what he did was wrong and that he should not have engaged in such behaviour.
‘He originally worked in a restaurant but now works full-time six days a week as a delivery driver. He accepts that all of what has happened since this offence is all his fault.
‘He recognises that he brought it on himself. He has been punished by not being able to work in the industry that he loves. This brought shame on his family, although he does say that his wife is extremely supportive of him and he is extremely grateful for that.’
In sentencing D’Agostino, the judge Mr Recorder Eric Lamb told him: ‘You created false memberships through a number of email addresses knowing perfectly well what it was you were doing.
‘But you have demonstrated by your behaviour your ability to resume the straight and narrow path because since 2022 you have not only seen sought out employment for yourself but there has not been any further offending.
‘Your means and responsibilities are such that it would be inappropriate to make an order for compensation – but that does not preclude your former employers from taking civil action against you.’
Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Constable Joe Duckworth from the Cheshire Police Economic Crime Unit said: ‘D’Agostino held a position of trust, and he abused that trust for his own financial gain.
‘Through his actions, he exploited more than £21,000 from the loyalty scheme, causing a significant loss to the restaurant.
‘I welcome the fact that he has now been held accountable for his actions, and I hope that his conviction will act as a warning to others that Cheshire Police will continue to pursue those involved in fraud.’
