The BBC has removed an article that suggested a care home boss stole £250,000 from residents after finding it hard to get help for his gambling addiction because he is gay.
Readers reacted with fury after convicted fraudster Ben Howard was 'portrayed as the victim'.
He was jailed in 2024 for three years and four months after admitting to stealing more than a quarter of a million pounds from vulnerable people.
But in an article published by the licence payer-funded organisation, Howard said he felt judged when he went to get help for his addiction a year before he first committed his crimes.
The BBC took down the article as 'it didn't meet our usual editorial standards', hours after the Daily Mail asked the corporation about the backlash.
'Someone would say, "Do you have a wife? Do you have a girlfriend?",' Howard told the BBC in the now-unpublished story.
'It makes you fearful to say, "Actually, I've got a boyfriend". You don't open up as much. You just close off.'
BBC Sussex posted a link to the story on X, but it was inundated with negative comments.
'He stole money from vulnerable people. This man isn’t a victim he’s a thief,' one person wrote.
The BBC has come under fire over an article that suggests care home boss Ben Howard who stole £250,000 from residents to fund his gambling addiction found it hard to get any support because he is gay
Howard said he felt judged when he went to get help for his addiction a year before he first committed his crimes
Another X user wrote alongside an eye-roll emoji: 'He’s the true victim here, isn’t he?
'Obviously not the vulnerable people from whom he stole A QUARTER OF A MILLION POUNDS.'
In its report, the BBC pointed to a Bournemouth University study, which found some LGBT+ people feared being judged when seeking support for gambling addiction.
The study involved 31 LGBT people aged between 20 and 59 from across the UK.
Howard is listed as a speaker for the upcoming Workplace Event at the NEC Birmingham in April.
His bio reads that he 'has experienced 14 years of gambling harms, finding recovery in 2020 through the help of GambleAware commissioned treatment and support network'.
Howard used residents' bank cards to steal their cash from ATMs and pretended to be them to access their money and redirect statements to his home for nearly three years between September 2017 and August 2020.
He also created bogus trips and events to collect funds from residents.
Readers have reacted with fury after convicted fraudster Howard was 'portrayed as the victim'
Howard was caught when a resident asked to access their funds. It prompted him to resign from his job and hand himself in to the police where he 'showed remorse' after gambling away £147,000 in two days.
After he was sentenced at Northampton Crown Court, Detective Constable Emma England said Howard had 'took full advantage' of his residents' vulnerabilities.
Howard was later declared bankrupt and lost his home and relationship.
He was released after just 10 months of his sentence and told the BBC that being jailed 'was the worst and best thing that happened to me and it forced me into recovery'.
Howard now works at Brighton and Hove LGBT Switchboard, which provides support for LGBTQ+ people.
After removing the article, the BBC posted the following statement on its Corrections and Clarifications page.
It wrote: 'We posted an online article about a gay man who said he felt unable to access gambling addiction services and some research into others who felt similar. The article did not meet our editorial standards.
'It included the man’s criminal offending but did not provide sufficient context or take account of the likely impact on victims of his contribution. We have removed the article from the website.'
