Food delivery service Ocado have denied having any knowledge regarding the situation of an employee who received a “customer hero” award just days before pleading guilty to having thousands of indecent images of children
Brian Carter, 53, of Bailey Square, Town End Farm, pleaded guilty to possessing the indecent images this week in what has been an ongoing criminal investigation since 2021. He received a suspended sentence.
Despite this, he continued to work in his customer service job in Ocado at The Beam and kept it a secret from his employers, who claim they were caught unaware of the situation.
Living a secret double life, he was described as being “respected so much by his colleagues and customers.”
Last week, Carter received a “customer hero” award from the company for his work and the honour was posted publicly on LinkedIn. He would plead guilty to the paedophile offenses just days later.
On his conviction, the Linkedin post was swiftly deleted.
SGM contacted Ocado, who denied knowing anything about his situation and stated the onus was on 1. innocent until proven guilty 2. That he had no obligation to inform the company of his situation and 3. That he has since been suspended.
They then released the following statement to SGM:
“This individual was found guilty yesterday and, this morning, was suspended with immediate effect. We are shocked and appalled by this case and our focus is on our colleagues.”