A former Warner Bros Studio employee who illegally sold over 1,000 items of Harry Potter merchandise has been sentenced.

Adam Hill, 35, stole £36,935 worth of wizarding items from the Warner Bros Studio stockroom in Leavesden and sold them online between December 2017 and March 2018.

These include wands, ties, badges and key rings. 

Hill, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, advertised the stolen merchandise on his personal eBay account, posting it to buyers from a local post office.

He then used his company’s franking machine to send it from his work post room.

But colleagues noticed in March 2018 Harry Potter stock appearing and disappearing from under Hill’s desk and reported him to their bosses.

An internal investigation found Hill had sold 1,040 items of Harry Potter merchandise through his eBay account.

When Hill’s car was searched, 12 parcels of Harry Potter items ready to be posted were found which matched sales he had made on eBay.

Officers from Hertfordshire police searched Hill’s home, where they seized Harry Potter ties, badges and key rings as well as more envelopes and packaging.

On November 28, 2019 Hill pleaded guilty to theft by employee and has today (January 3) been sentenced at St Albans Crown Court to 14 months in prison suspended for 18 months and 250 hours unpaid work.

Jan Muller of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “In a significant breach of trust, Adam Hill had the audacity to steal thousands of pounds of merchandise from Warner Bros in plain sight of his work colleagues; but they reported him after growing suspicious of the items constantly piling up under his desk.

“Subsequent scrutiny of Hill’s eBay and PayPal accounts revealed orders and payments received for goods which were found packaged up ready to send to buyers, giving him no option but to admit to his crimes.”