Rogues Gallery

Pointon and Sempringham Council

Lincolnshire Live 3rd November 2020

Debt-ridden parish clerk 'desperately ashamed' after stealing thousands of pounds of taxpayers' cash to save family home

He feared he would lose his house or the bailiffs would come knocking

A parish council clerk who fell heavily into debt stole almost £19,000 from five parish councils because he feared his home would be repossessed.

Paul Adrian Illingworth, 54, racked up debts of more than £50,000 and began stealing to try and stave off bailiffs.

Illingworth, a former Halifax Bank worker who worked as a part-time clerk for five Lincolnshire parish councils, transferred money electronically from council accounts into his own account and also made unauthorised cheque payments to himself. He stole a total of £18,886 before his cover was blown when an audit in April this year by Pointon and Sempringham Council revealed discrepancies and the police were called.

Kevin Jones, prosecuting at Lincoln Crown Court, said that the following month Ropsley and Helpringham parish councils discovered money was missing from their accounts. They also contacted police and when Illingworth was interviewed he confessed to taking money from the five parish councils who had hired him.

Illingworth, of Old School, Church Lane, Scredington, near Sleaford, pleaded guilty to five charges of theft between June 1, 2015 and June 30 this year. The largest amount stolen was £12,138 from Ropsley Parish Council.

Sunil Khanna, in mitigation, told the court: "He is a man of previous good character whose offending started at the age of 60 as a result of difficulties in his personal and financial circumstances." Mr Khanna said that Illingworth worked his way up to become an assistant branch manager with the Halifax but when it changed from a building society to a bank he was transferred to a role selling financial services which he struggled to cope with. Illingworth became depressed and his marriage got into difficulties before he eventually took early retirement on medical grounds.

Mr Khanna said: "He went from a job earning £40,000 a year to an income of just £1,100 a month from his pension. He built up significant debts particularly credit cards and loans. "He remortgaged his house and paid off all the debts but they built up again. It came to the position where he thought he would lose his home or the bailiffs would come in. He took the decision to take money. Once he had taken it once it became a way to stop the family losing their house. He is desperately ashamed of what he did."

Illingworth also stole £2,490 from Carlton Scroop Council, £2,130 from Helpringham, £1,926 from Pointon and Sempringham and £201 from Old Somerby.

Mr Khanna said that Illingworth, who has sought help for mental health issues, is currently selling his home and plans to move away from the area. When the sale is completed he will repay the stolen money from the equity that is left in the property.

Illingworth was given an eight month jail sentence suspended for a year.

A hearing to consider confiscation of his assets to repay the money he stole was adjourned to a later date.

Yaxley Parish Council

Peterborough Telegraph 12th December 2017

Former parish clerk sentenced for fraud of council

The former clerk of Yaxley Parish Council has been ordered to carry out community service after she defrauded the council out of hundreds of pounds.

Lesley Tibble (52) of Foxglove Close, Yaxley, was found guilty of one count of fraud by abuse of position at a trial held at Cambridge Crown Court. Tibble denied the charge, which related to £545.01 which belonged to the parish council. However, a jury returned a guilty verdict following the trial which lasted several days. The court heard the fraud took place between September 17, 2010 and February 2, 2012.

She was sentenced on Friday at Cambridge Crown Court, where Judge Peter Rook QC sentenced her to a community order for 12 months, 100 hours unpaid work and ordered her to pay compensation of £438.33 to Yaxley Parish Council, prosecution costs £200 and a victim surcharge £60.

A spokesman for the council said: “This case has taken some time, going through a discipline, appeal and employment tribunal. This resulted in the dismissal of Mrs Tibble as clerk of Yaxley Parish Council in May 2014.

“A police investigation found sufficient evidence, and a further transaction to add to the case, which satisfied the CPS in proceeding to court action. On the 10th November Mrs Tibble was found, by a unanimous verdict, guilty of fraud by abuse of position. A positive aspect of this action is that the council’s financial practices and procedures have been revised and improved to avoid a repetition of this, giving additional transparency and rigour."

“Finally, the Council’s thanks go to Cambridgeshire Constabulary for their thorough investigation and diligence in pursuing this case to prosecution.”

Waltham on the Wolds and Thorpe Arnold Parish Council and Buckminster Parish Council.

Leicester Mercury 9th March 2019

The dishonest clerk who 'systematically swindled' £36K from 2 Leicestershire parish councils

A dishonest clerk who "systematically swindled" two parish councils out of £36,326 had deprived communities out of much needed funds, a court was told. Alan Noble, 67, lied to councillors about their financial position whilst paying himself a double part-time salary and pocketed other sums he was not entitled to.

Leicester Crown Court was told he defrauded Waltham on the Wolds and Thorpe Arnold Parish Council out of £21,193 and duped Buckminster Parish Council out of £15,131. At an earlier hearing, Noble, of Benskin Close, Little Dalby, near Melton, admitted 15 offences of fraud by abuse of position, which included writing cheques for his own use and dishonestly arranging standing order home phone and internet payments, on various dates between 2012 and 2016. He also admitted two offences of forgery, relating to each of the parish councils in Leicestershire.

'Once he'd dipped his fingers into the pot, it became easy'

Judge Nicholas Dean QC said: "It was quite a large sum of money for these parish councils to lose. We are looking at him obtaining something in the order of £10,000 a year."

When interviewed he denied his dishonesty.

"It was to supplement an otherwise modest income. The problem was that once he'd dipped his fingers into the pot, it became easy and as long as he got away with it he continued. It was a matter of when he would be caught, and not if, but he got away with it for a number of years."

Passing sentence, the judge told Noble: "You betrayed your position of trust as clerk of both parish councils, although it's right to say you didn't do it in a particularly sophisticated way." The judge said Noble falsified the accounts and the funds he stole should have been available to benefit of both communities.

He said: "You have no means to repay the significant sum you stole and £36,000 remains outstanding." He ordered forfeiture of £411 from the defendant's bank account, to be shared between the two councils in compensation.

Judge Dean said: "You were, in effect, supplementing your income (of his main job as a garden centre employee). It hardly enriched you, because you only had a modest income, but you used it to enhance your modest lifestyle. I'm told you're fit enough to do unpaid work and it seems nothing would be achieved by sending you directly to prison - although it was serious offending."

'He was dishonest in a number of ways' Andrew Peet, prosecuting, said: "As clerk, his role was to manage the finances and deal with the grant money given to the parish councils from local government, to carry out audits and present the accounts to the parish councils. He was dishonest in a number of ways in relation to each council, all strikingly similar. He took double salary payments, paid cheques to himself and used creative accounting by putting false withdrawals on cheque stubs and in the accounts."

Without authority, Noble arranged for each parish council to pay for his home broadband; for more than he could have reasonably claimed on behalf of parish council work. Mr Peet said: "He was simultaneously swindling each parish council.

"When interviewed he denied the dishonesty and asserted one of the councillors at Waltham had it in for him - and that is not accepted by the prosecution."

Leicestershire police officer in the case, Det Con Christopher Morland, was praised and publicly commended by the judge for his "diligent and detailed investigation." The judge said the defendant's denial of wrongdoing had resulted in "a lengthy police inquiry" before Noble owned up.

Guy Wyatt, mitigating, said Noble was of previous good character.

He said: "They weren't private businesses. The fact it was public money meant the existence of the organisations were not at risk and jobs weren't at risk. I'm instructed to express regret. I can't offer any explanation as to why he acted dishonestly. References show he is fully trusted by his employer, who knows what's happened."

Noble was given an 18 month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and was ordered to do 180 hours of unpaid work.

'These offences were very mean'

After the hearing, Waltham on the Wolds and Thorpe Arnold Parish Councillor, Martin Lusty, issued a statement, saying: "The parish council has spent a great deal of time working with the police to build a strong case for the prosecution. We're pleased that our ex-clerk, Alan Noble, has pleaded guilty to multiple charges of fraud and false accounting. The suspended sentence is entirely appropriate due to the blatant abuse of trust involved.

"It's hoped we will be able to draw a close on an unfortunate period in our history and move forward. We will now be pursuing all means possible to recover the parish's monetary loss."

Rolvenden Parish Council

Kent Online 27th September 2019

Rolvenden Parish Council Clerk guilty of £80,000 fraud is jailed for three years

A parish council clerk has been jailed for three years after he stole more than £80,000 from under councillors' noses. Gary Willard, of Caxton Close, Tenterden, syphoned off the money from Rolvenden Parish Council's bank accounts, where he worked between May 2016 and November 2017.

The part-time clerk and finance officer deceived two other councillors by hiding a critical page of a bank mandate that enabled him to poach money from the council avoiding scrutiny.

After persuading colleagues to switch payments to online banking he began transferring the parish council's money to his own account, even setting up direct debits to pay for personal bills. But the 53-year-old's cover was blown in November 2017 when he attempted to present incomplete annual accounts to an independent auditor and it was discovered he had completely drained all three of the council’s bank accounts.

A Kent Police investigation showed Willard had stolen a total of £83,058, using the money to pay rent on a business premises and to purchase electrical items for personal use that included computers, tablets, a camera, a projector and two mobile phones.

Willard admitted stealing on his arrest but said the council had inflated the amount. He said that he was in debt and stole to help provide for a relative with learning difficulties. He claimed he intended to pay the money back from his £400-a-month salary.

Willard was charged with an offence of fraud by abuse of position which he pleaded guilty to at Maidstone Crown Court. He was sentenced today to three years in prison and also received a consecutive sentence of 14 extra days for breach of bail offences. Detective Constable Geoff Kirya of the Serious Economic Crime Unit said: "The actions of Gary Willard will have a profound and lasting impact not just on the parish council, but upon the communities that they serve.

"Willard has stolen money which had been put aside for a number of planned projects to benefit local people and enhance local facilities. This is money which is now no longer available. It is likely the council’s funds will not recover for many years to come."

Maestag Town Council

Wales Online 10th August 2022

'Highly respected' council clerk jailed after stealing £230,000

A "highly respected" clerk at a Welsh town council has been jailed after defrauding her employer of more than £230,000. Margaret Buckley conned councillors who signed blank cheques which she then used to pay herself, her daughter, a church, and its flower group.

Buckley, 76, started as a deputy clerk at Maesteg Town Council in 2003 before being promoted to clerk in 2016 when her predecessor retired. She held the position until 2020 when she resigned.

She attended Cardiff Crown Court on Wednesday after admitting she defrauded the council of £238,205.54 – split across £17,279 to Our Lady & St Patrick church, £134,894.86 to the church's flower group, £82,181.68 to her own account, and £3,850 to her daughter.

Prosecutor Cat Jones said Buckley had oversight of the council's chequebook in her role. In 2019 the Wales Audit Office noticed some irregularities and Buckley was asked to provide copies of the accounts. She did not respond. While Buckley was off work with ill health the acting clerk discovered she had falsified invoices and convinced councillors to sign blank cheques. She wrote more than 120 fraudulent cheques from the council between 2015 and 2020.

The court heard Buckley was suspended from her role and took some accounts with her. But when police interviewed Buckley she admitted the fraud. Ms Jones told the court: "She said she initially took money to make contributions for repairs to the local church and hadn't managed to pay it back but she accepted the matter got out of hand."

Buckley told police: "It's my fault. I don't want anyone else to take the blame... I will take the punishment handed out to me.

When the fraud started to emerge some social media posts made unfounded allegations that councillors were involved, which led to some leaving their roles. The clerk who replaced Buckley said the fraud led to a lack of public trust in the council.

Buckley, of Llwydarth Road, used a Zimmer frame in court. She has no previous convictions and the publicity around her offence has been "a significant blow to her", said her barrister Robin Rouch. He added: "Her references speak very highly of her and what she has done in the past. She is wholly remorseful over what has taken place. Her family were wholly oblivious of her actions until they were reported. She is ashamed of the impact on them. The church has played a significant role in her life from a very early age. Some would say bizarrely the defendant took it upon herself to ensure the church had funds. The first payment was of £49,000 to the church group and £2,300 to herself so it's clear how it started and what it started for. I have to accept it grew from there."

Mr Rouch said the fraud funded Buckley's "day-to-day expenditure" rather than a "lavish lifestyle". He told the court she did not realise how much she had taken until it "caught up" with her.

An insurance company has reimbursed the council but Ms Jones said the firm is expected to make a financial claim against Buckley. She has around £29,000 in her bank account which she expects to be taken by the company, the court heard.

Mr Rouch said that his client has spent time in hospital following falls and that she would struggle in prison "due to her age and mobility". He accepted there had been "some prevarication" from her, adding that she took "some documents but not all" from the council offices.

Judge Shomon Khan told Buckley: "You were trusted by council officials with the public's money... You paid invoices, you paid expenses, you paid employees." He said she was so trusted that councillors would sign blank cheques on her request.

The judge added: "I can't ignore the fact you are 76 years of age. I can see you are frail. I have read medical evidence of difficulties in your mobility. It is quite clear to me you were a highly respected member of the community. You have done much for the church. You were described as caring, responsible, and focused. This criminality has destroyed your reputation. It has undone all your previous good work... No doubt the church would be horrified to find out that [the repair funds] were from criminal money."

Judge Khan accepted that Buckley is not a risk to the public and is "never going to offend again". But he said he would not suspend the prison term of two years and four months. "Your fraudulent activities were a gross breach of trust," he told her. "You abused the trust of the council and in doing so you abused the trust of the public."

Loud sobbing could then be heard from a family member in the public gallery but there was no visible reaction from Buckley, other than a slight nod to the judge, as her jail term was handed down.

Crowle and Ealand Town Council

Scunthorpe Telegraph 5th January 2018

Crooked town clerk stole more than £23,000 from council in four-year scam

A crooked town clerk has been jailed after fleecing a council of more than £23,400 in a four-year scam. She even callously stole £600 that had been paid for a burial plot by a member of the public, a court heard.

Katy Fowler, 44, of Cranidge Close, Crowle, admitted stealing £23,428 from Crowle and Ealand Town Council between January 1, 2013 and March 30 last year. Andrew Bailey, prosecuting, told Grimsby Crown Court that Fowler was responsible for the accounts and had worked for the council for 14 years. She was a trusted employee and for years was the only paid worker.

She was in control of the money," said Mr Bailey.

Matters came to light when the supposed £600 a month cost of a CCTV maintenance contract for cameras was questioned. It was discovered that the actual cost from the contractor was £600 a quarter, meaning that she was stealing £1,200 a quarter and £4,800 a year.

Fowler also stole £1,500 for a grant to Crowle Town Cricket Club, a £2,500 payment for Ealand Park and £600 for a burial plot by a member of the public. Felicity Campbell, mitigating, said Fowler was in emotional turmoil at the time after her husband was diagnosed with cancer. He was unable to work and it put a strain on the finances.

"She was spending too much as a way of seeking comfort," said Miss Campbell.

Mother-of-two Fowler tried to hide her debts and fooled herself into believing she would be able to pay the money back. "It continued, it continued," added Miss Campbell. "It was only a matter of time before she was found out."

Fowler had found other work through a logistics company and had paid back £3,000. She had no previous convictions.

Judge Mark Bury told Fowler: "You had built up a trusted and friendly relationship with many of the councillors. "The effect on the council and councillors can't be underestimated. The effect on the public purse has been significant."

"This is a serious breach of trust of its type and it took place over a long period of time. You simply stole to make yourself feel better, intending at first to pay it back. As your debts became more apparent, you then needed the money rather than simply wanted it. It must be made clear that those who steal from public bodies for this amount of money and over this amount of time must receive a custodial sentence regardless of their own personal circumstances."

Fowler was jailed for eight months.

Brierley Town Council

Express 1st October 2013

Parish clerk jailed after £1 million fraud

A PARISH council clerk who masterminded a £1 million fraud - and then lied about being blind and suffering from amnesia - has been jailed for eight years. Janet Cooper held the post of clerk at Brierley Town Council, near Barnsley for three years, during which time she began pocketing a total of £295,000 which she siphoned off from £695,000 public works loans she dishonestly obtained. The 51-year-old frittered away the cash on Mediterranean cruises, holidays with her husband at a Devon hotel, a £21,000 Volvo and offered £375,000 cash on a four-bedroom bungalow.

The convicted fraudster - once the subject of a Channel 4 documentary - even had the cheek to carry a white stick and wear black glasses after claiming the disability when challenged over the offences. After the hearing investigating officer Det Sgt Stuart Hall said: "There is no medical evidence to substantiate her blindness or memory loss." As she was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court today the glasses were absent but she still had her trademark white stick - all of it a complete lie.

Coopers' crimes were only uncovered when she went into hospital for a brain tumour operation and a replacement finance officer began investigating.

Four council jobs had to be axed, services cut and 5,000 council taxpayers faced increased charges as a result of her offending. The town council is now £1.3 million in debt and has had to take out a £480,000 emergency Government-sanctioned loan to pay recurring annual loan charges of £44,000.

It is estimated the current case has cost the state £100,000 in court costs, the police £75,000 to investigate and another £25,000 for the finance officer. Cooper staged the fraud by forging councillors' signatures on documents and even falsifying the minutes of council meetings to apply for loans.

None of the councillors or other officials had any knowledge of her offending.

She changed her plea to guilty to four counts of fraud and one of theft on the second day of her trial after the prosecution opened the case. The jury was discharged after returning formal guilty verdicts.

Her only defence was loss of memory and Ian Goldsack, prosecuting, told the court that a number of specialists had examined her and "there were doubts to say the least about the truthfulness of her medical condition."

Cooper, of Wadsley Lane, Sheffield, admitted dishonestly abusing her position as council clerk by obtaining loans of £350,000; £152,500; and £66,000 from the Public Works Loan Board and a further loan of £127,000 without authority in 2008 and 2009. She also admitted theft of £295,296 belonging to Brierley Town Council between November 1, 2006 when she first started and when her service effectively ended on December 31, 2009.

Cooper maintained they were grants but in fact they were loans, said Mr Goldsack, which had serious consequences for the council. "It has meant significant cuts to services and people losing their jobs and an increase in taxes payable by the local community to try and cover the costs," he said.

Cheques totalling nearly £300,000 were either drawn or transferred from the council's bank accounts by Cooper in her own name or that of her husband. She also falsified a large number of invoices, some from companies which had never traded with the parish council.

"When the investigation was underway she has maintained that she has lost her eyesight and she has lost her memory," said Mr Goldsack.

Former Mayor of Brierley Patrick Doyle said in a statement that it had been a disaster for the council in a disadvantaged area. "Everyone in the community is a victim of this situation for at least the next 20 years," he said.

Her barrister Andrew Smith said: "This is a lady with complex psychological and personality issues."

Judge Kelson told her: "The dishonesty involved was persistent at a time when many in this country are thankful for a job. Your salary wasn't enough for you and so you deceived your employers in a sophisticated and complex way."

He went on: "But for your ill-health you would have taken more and more and more."

Afterwards Det Sgt Hall said: "She would often try and ingratiate herself with other people and appear to be quite generous - but it wasn't her money. There is nothing left in her bank account and there are no assets. It has all been frittered away. Barring the odd holiday or purchase she has not really led a champagne lifestyle. She has lied about everything and even her husband is another unwitting victim of the lifestyle she has fabricated."

Rugeley Town Council

Express & Star 12th June 2019

JAILED: Town clerk stole £218,000 from Rugeley Town Council

A "greedy" town council worker who syphoned more than £218,000 of the local authority's money into her own bank account has been jailed for four years.

Rebecca Mason had been an assistant town clerk at Rugeley Town Council since 2008 and had responsibility for running and checking the accuracy of its payroll system, a judge heard. The 42-year-old divorced mother abused the trust put in her by making 242 monetary transfers from the council coffers to her own bank account, Stafford Crown Court was told. She masked the fraud by labelling the recipients as two firms with whom the local authority did regular business.

However she made the mistake of making the transfer electronically using the Bacs system, rather than by cheque which was the usual procedure with legitimate payments, explained Ms Wendy Miller, prosecuting.

Mason started the fraud in February 2017 and got away with it for 23 months until being suspended over an unconnected matter involving false time keeping. While she was off duty her work was given to another member of staff who noticed discrepancies in the accounts in the way the two firms had supposedly been paid.

An internal investigation - which cost the cash-strapped council almost £11,000 - was launched and the fraud was uncovered on December 10 last year. Inquiries revealed £218,418 had been switched from the council's accounts into Mason's personal bank account, said Ms Miller.

She continued: "She was a trusted member of a small organisation with access to public funds and it is public money that has been spent."

Police were informed and Mason admitted the offence following her arrest on January 23.

Officers combed through her finances to discover where the money went.

Horses, holidays, clothes and cars

The biggest single expense was nearly £70,000 blown on the care and stabling of three horses with a further £18,500 going on holidays. Dining out ate up a further £20,000, nearly £50,000 was spent on food while the bill for new clothes topped £20,000. Cars and travel cost £17,000 while more money went on telecommunications, broadband and TV costs.

Mr Stephen Lee, defending Mason who was of previous good character, said: "She believes she was suffering from a mental breakdown when this started." He maintained her marriage had broken down after her husband had affairs and took money from her mother before leaving for good.

The defendant, from School Walk, Burntwood, admitted fraud by abuse of position and was jailed by Judge Michael Chambers QC who concluded greed had been Mason's motive.

Detective Constable Nick Gorman, of Staffordshire Police, said: “This was a significant amount of money that was stolen from the public purse by Rebecca Mason who dishonestly abused her position for her own financial gain in this case. Although she pleaded guilty at the first opportunity she knows this was a betrayal of trust that continued for some time.”

Hughenden Parish Council

Bucks Free Press 15th February 2013

Ex-parish clerk Lynne Turner jailed for £28k council fraud

FORMER Hughenden Parish Council clerk Lynne Turner has been jailed for nine months for transferring £28,200 of public money into her personal account. The 50-year-old of Tancred Road, High Wycombe, was found guilty of ten counts of fraud by abuse of position last month.

She was sentenced to nine months behind bars for each count – to run concurrently – at Oxford Crown Court today. The charges relate to her time as clerk of the parish council, where she moved £28,200 from the council's bank account to her own between August 2010 and May 2011 in 31 different transactions.

His Honour Judge Pringle QC said she had abused the trust of the parish council and the residents in the parish and he had no other option but to serve her a jail sentence. He said: "You expect people, particularly those who are serving the community when placed in a position of trust, to honour the trust that people place in them and to behave with propriety and you sorely failed to do so."

Prosecution Jerome Silva explained how the current clerk, Charlotte Watts, noticed the discrepancies in the accounts when she started at the council after Turner resigned.

Defence Dejan Mladenovic said Turner had previous good character. He said a psychiatric report showed she had adjustment disorder where she behaves in a way that is inextricably linked to her inability to acknowledge any wrongful acts. He said: "It is part and parcel of the reason why she had difficulties accepting her criminality in the first place." He added: "Mrs Turner does intend and does want to repay all of the money she took and defrauded the parish council of. "I am told by her she would be in a position to begin making these repayments within the next six to seven months." He said the case has caused stress to herself and her family and she deeply regrets her actions.

In his summing up his His Honour Judge Pringle QC said:

"You are 50 years of age. You have no previous convictions of any sort and until 2010 you, Mrs Turner, worked hard, it seems all your life.

You brought up your family in what, I suspect, was a commendable way. "In 2010 you had been working for Hughenden Parish Council for 16 years as the clerk to the parish council finances. Many of the parish council in the time you served there got to know you well and you were completely trusted by them. It would, it seems, be the case that you were continued to be trusted by them up until and during the course of your trial because you called two of them as character witnesses. The plain fact of the matter is that you, Mrs Turner, abused that trust- the trust that had been placed in you by the parish council and all the residents of that parish.

In August 2010, no doubt because of financial pressures you had got yourself into, you began to divert funds from the parish accounts into your own personal account. You started slowly. £300 was the first amount, then another £300 and after a month or so you obviously became confident and sums of £1,000- sometimes on consecutive days- were placed in your own bank account. The total amount came to just over £30,000.

You expect people, particularly those who are serving the community when placed in a position of trust to honour the trust that people place in them, to behave with propriety and you sorely failed to do so."

Bratton Parish Council

Wiltshire Times 26th June 2017

Corrupt parish clerk given two year suspended sentence after stealing £26,000

A CORRUPT former parish clerk has been given a two year suspended sentence after stealing £26,000 from Bratton Parish Council.

Anita Whittle, of Southway, Bratton, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft by employee, fraud by false representation and obtaining property by deception at Swindon Crown Court today.

Concerns about the council’s funds were initially reported to Wiltshire Police in August 2016 and Detective Chris Tollervey from the Complex Fraud Team, investigated these allegations. A large amount of paperwork including bank statements and monthly minute sheets were recovered and it was found that money had been stolen from Bratton Parish’s bank account by Whittle over a number of years, equating to nearly £27,000.

Detective Chris Tollervey said: “Over a period of many years, Whittle has been stealing money by several different methods and has then used this money to fund her own lifestyle. As well as this, she had falsified council forms and annual reports, portraying a false account of Bratton Parish Council and their financial position.

“Whittle held a position of trust within Bratton Parish Council and she has completely abused this position over many years for her own benefit and to enhance her own lifestyle.

“I hope today’s sentence sends out a clear message that this type of offending will not be tolerated.”

As well as the suspended sentence, the 49-year-old was also given a six month curfew from 5pm to 5am and an order was authorised under the Proceeds of Crime Act which means Whittle will have to pay back the amount of money she illegally benefitted from.

Whitehill Town Council

Daily Mail 7th October 2013

Council clerk stole £160,000 from taxpayers to fund her 'shopping addiction' by forging cheques with an erasable PEN

• Patricia Bell tricked councillors into signing cheques she had filled out

• But Bell, whose salary was £46,000, removed the name by heating the ink

• Later she would then fill her own details into the blank space

• She paid £110,000 worth of altered cheques into her account

• Also paid £45,000 pounds of additional cheques, including salary payments

A parish clerk has been jailed for using removable ink to forge cheques worth £110,000. Patricia Bell, 58, presented councillors with legitimate cheques filled out with the names of valid payees. But once they were signed, she would heat up the fabric pen ink, wipe it away and write in her own name. The married mother of two spent the proceeds on luxury handbags, holidays and beauty treatments.

The scam at Whitehill Town cCouncil in Hampshire lasted for five years and pushed a number of its bank accounts into the red. Bell made out £110,000 worth of altered cheques and stole a further £45,000 of public money, partly through bogus extra salary payments. And she fraudulently claimed £7,000 of expenses including food bills and eBay purchases – making a total of £162,000. Speaking at her sentencing hearing on Friday, prosecutor Tom Wright told Winchester Crown Court: ‘Mrs Bell had a position of trust in a small council who all work very hard.

But over the years checks and balances were eroded by her manipulation.

‘In 2012, the council noticed that it was running a deficit in several of its accounts.’ Mrs Bell was in sole control of payments including invoicing and pay roll at the council, which had taken her on in May 2006. The fraud started in April 2007 and continued until she was suspended from her £46,000-a-year post in December 2012. ‘Her system operated on a cash and cheque basis and she ended up exploiting this system,’ Mr Wright added.

‘She would get cheques signed by councillors. Her method was to write the payee’s name on the cheque using a fabric pen – a pen that uses special ink that can be easily removed. Mrs Bell would write a legitimate name on the cheque and get a councillor to sign it – they trusted her after her long time at the council. She would then rub out the initial payee’s name and fill in her own details on the cheque. By doing this, she was able to take large sums of money from the council.’

Once councillors identified financial irregularities an internal investigation was launched and Bell was forced to attend a meeting with senior councillors. She admitted the allegations were true and was suspended for potential gross misconduct. The council commissioned an independent investigator to ascertain the facts of the financial irregularities.

On February 18 this year, it dismissed Bell on the grounds she abused procedures to pay herself by falsifying reports, accounts and expense claims. She was arrested and charged with fraud by abuse of position.

Anthony Rimmer, defending, claimed his client had worked hard in the public sector up until the incidents that brought her to court. He said: ‘Mrs Bell had spent 37 years working in the public sector, working for Action for Children and other district councils. It was only when she turned 53 that she started doing this. She would often throw away the fabric pens in a bid to stop what she was doing, but ended up buying more.’

Bell, who had served as chairman and treasurer of the Hampshire Society of Local Councils, admitted one count of fraud by abuse of position.

Her head bowed, she was in tears for most of the hearing which saw her jailed for 28 months.

Towersey and Chinnor parish councils

Oxford Mail 1st July 2022

JAILING her for four years on Thursday, Recorder John Hardy QC described parish council fraudster Joanne Wills as a ‘leper’ and an ‘outcast’.

Deputy clerk Wills stole more than £160,000 from Towersey and Chinnor parish councils over a decade - before the falsified invoices were discovered during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a lengthy set of sentencing remarks, the judge told 47-year-old Wills:

“For much of the last two decades you, Joanne Wills, have occupied positions – senior positions – of great responsibility within your local community – or communities. At a point in time when public expenditure was reined back by the government then in charge of our economy, local authorities were hit particularly hard. Their budget constraints have been the subject of considerable publicity and there is no need for me to rehearse it.

But it is a fact and the little things that parish councils did – and did very well – could no longer be done to the same extent. I quote Mr [Mark] Davis, the chairman of the parish council: ‘It was not possible to upgrade the cricket ground, to improve the playing fields’ car park, to repair the culvert under the village green, to repair the bus shelter or put traffic calming measures in place…because the council simply did not appear to have the funds available’.

Of course, one reason that the funds weren’t available was because of the constraints put on public expenditure by central government. But in the case of Towersey Parish Council, the funds weren’t available because through your fraudulent representations you stole them. Over £135,000 passed into your bank account from those parish funds over the course of some 10 years. And when that wasn’t enough, you tried to cover up by stealing from another authority, Chinnor Parish Council, transferring money both into your account – sustaining your fraudulent habits – and into the Towersey Parish Council account to…cover up what you had stolen from them.

One sees from Mr Davis’ statement the sheer level of pride, justifiable pride, that he takes at the relevant time in chairing the parish council, in reflecting the local community – an exercise of democracy in action at its best - but you put paid to that.

He noted that the Towersey councillors had supported her when the allegations first came to light, assuming it was a ‘terrible mistake’.

"They still stood behind you,” Recorder Hardy said.

"Of course it’s not only the councillors and the community who suffer in circumstances such as this. It is every single person who pays their council tax, every law abiding person who scrapes and saves in order to pay the local precept.

As Mr du Feu [defence barrister] has realistically accepted with his customary eloquence, you now have no place in that community. You are an outcast, a leper almost, and you have brought that upon yourself. I have no doubt that you are a member of a close and loving family but you have brought them down in their community as well by what you did.”

The judge read chunks from the Towersey parish chairman’s impact statement, which chronicled the effect of Wills ‘cynical’ fraud.

Saying he agreed with the councillor’s assessment, Recorder Hardy said:

“His description of the effect of your conduct upon the community your purported to serve is blisteringly accurate. You were regarded and I quote ‘as a pillar of the community’. You turned out to be the very opposite.

Three of your friends have provided character references which I have read with care. But I am bound to note that it appears that you have deceived them as much as you deceived everything else in the community. The deception being that you were a good, loyal, honest, hard-working person. Yet you were none these things.”

He went through the sentencing guidelines for the offence of fraud by false representation. There had been an abuse of trust and, having previously referred the lawyers to the New Testament parable of the ‘widow’s mite’ to illustrate why the sums stolen from the relatively poorly-off parish councils would have represented a more significant loss, said he placed the offending in the ‘top of the category’ on the guidelines.

Recorder Hardy passed a total sentence of four years, factoring in a third reduction for Wills’ guilty plea at the magistrates’ court