{"id":280566,"date":"2025-11-24T12:38:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/280566\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T12:38:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:38:18","slug":"sneaky-manager-who-embezzled-23000-in-fake-refunds-scam-avoids-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/280566\/","title":{"rendered":"Sneaky manager who embezzled \u00a323,000 in fake refunds scam avoids jail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disgraced Erol Doganoz, 29, was finally snared after a customer requested a refund and it was found one had already been made.<\/p>\n

Court Reporter and Ewan Mowat Deputy Lifestyle, Trends, & Showbiz Editor<\/p>\n

04:30, 24 Nov 2025Updated 08:34, 24 Nov 2025<\/p>\n

\"ErolErol Doganoz embezzled \u00a323k from his branch of Jewson(Image: Paisley Daily Express)<\/p>\n

The former assistant manager of a Renfrewshire builders\u2019 merchants who admitted to embezzling<\/a> over \u00a323,000 by making fake refunds to himself has avoided a jail<\/a> sentence.<\/p>\n

Disgraced Erol Doganoz was snared when a customer of Paisley Jewson attended the Greenhill Road store for a refund for unused items. The computer system flagged a refund had already been made for these items \u2013 however, not by the customer.<\/p>\n

The sneaky 29-year-old would wait until the branch manager had left work for the day before issuing himself cash and debit card refunds when he was cashing up for the night.<\/p>\n

Procurator fiscal depute Alyson McLaughlan previously told Paisley Sheriff Court<\/a> Doganoz began working with Jewson in a Glasgow branch around 10 years ago, working up to his role as assistant manager of the Paisley store.<\/p>\n

She told how Jewson uses a computerised sales system which employees access using unique personal user identification numbers.<\/p>\n

The town\u2019s court also heard it was company policy for refunds to be issued in the form they had been paid, meaning if a card was used to purchase goods, then the refund was to be issued to the card and not made in cash.<\/p>\n

Ms McLaughlan explained: \u201cOn September 11, 2023, a customer attended at the Paisley<\/a> branch and attempted to obtain a refund for materials that were unused.<\/p>\n

\"ErolThe shamed assistant manager was caught making fake refunds to himself(Image: Paisley Daily Express)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe system provided information that a refund had already been provided to the customer in cash despite the original transaction being made by card. The refund had been processed under the user ID of the accused.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn September 14, the Paisley branch manager contacted a security consultant at Jewson\u2019s parent company and informed him of his suspicions in relation to the accused.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe branch manager had identified a further two transactions made on September 13, 2023, under the accused\u2019s ID where transactions had been refunded onto a debit card. At that time, the accused did not engage with the investigation and he resigned from his position on September 20, 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PaisleyPaisley Sheriff Court(Image: Paisley Daily Express)<\/p>\n

The court heard the branch manager went through all refund transactions on the system for the Paisley branch and identified a large number of fraudulent transactions carried out under the accused\u2019s user ID.<\/p>\n

Ms McLaughlan added: \u201cMonies were refunded in a mixture of cash and onto a single bank card. The total amount embezzled by the accused between August 1, 2022 and September 12, 2023, in a mixture of cash and card transactions was \u00a323,538.91.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defence agent Urfan Dar told the court this was \u201ca very serious matter.\u201d Mr Dar added: \u201cIt was a poor error of judgement and one he is ashamed of. He can repay \u00a310,000 today and the balance within six months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheriff Thomas Millar stated: \u201cNormally, a figure of this sum would be a custodial sentence. Because of your early plea you are entitled to a discount but the discount will be not having a custodial sentence imposed and I will impose the maximum hours of unpaid work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doganoz, of Shillay Street, Milton, Glasgow, was ordered to pay \u00a310,000 in compensation within two weeks and the remaining balance of \u00a313,538.91 within six months.<\/p>\n

In addition, Doganoz was made subject to supervision of the social work department for six months and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work in the community within 12 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disgraced Erol Doganoz, 29, was finally snared after a customer requested a refund and it was found one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,1343,38787,59,3776,3492,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-280566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-financial-crime","11":"tag-gb","12":"tag-paisley","13":"tag-prisons","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}