A letting manager who defrauded a six-figure sum from a Chester estate agents, which led to them having to make redundancies, has been jailed.

Wendy Dare, 57, of Southport Road, Scarisbrick, Southport, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by abuse of position over a four-year period when she appeared at Chester Magistrates Court last month.

The fraud was detected when Humphreys was purchased by Northwood and an audit of the accounts in June 2021 uncovered several outgoings which could not be explained.

Appearing at Chester Crown Court on Monday 20 March, Dare, of Southport Road, Scarisbrick, Southport, was jailed for 28 months.

Prosecuting, Michael O’Kane, said the offences took place between 2 February 2016 and 31 December 2020, when Dare was a letting manager at the firm.

The court was told that she “acted in a position of trust and responsibility” but abused her position to make financial gains for herself and members of her family.

One of the charges was that Dare recorded 65 false landlord payments, totalling £28,506, to cover rental payments for her daughters.

The total sum of the fraud, the prosecution say, was in the region of £140,000.

The court heard Dare’s husband Fred Dare had been in a serious car accident and had received a large sum of money as a result, and the timing of him receiving that sum of money coincided with Dare repaying the estate agents.

A victim statement on behalf of Humphreys said the financial harm caused to the company had led to redundancies and a drop in staff bonuses made.

The company said if it had not changed its accounting system then the offending could well have continued.

Defending, Peter Barnett said Dare was “under no illusions” and had made full admissions in her interview.

There had initially been some dispute over the sum the prosecution had calculated. Peter Barnett, defending Dare, said last month that there was a “substantive dispute over the sums involved”, after she alleged to have repaid £36,000 prior to her arrest, claiming that she had believed that was the total sum to repay.

However, Dare has now accepted that the figure of almost £140,000 was correct.

The origin of the offending came after Dare’s son had a debt caused by a heroin addiction, the court heard, and both Dare and her husband paid that debt off, but lost their home and moved to rented accommodation.

Dare was “taking drips and drabs” from the company and “was not aware” of the effect on the firm.

But Judge Simon Berkson told Dare that she had committed “significant and long-lasting fraud” on her employers, totalling almost £140,000.

“As a direct result, people lost out,” he added, as the company had to make redundancies, and as a result, “only immediate imprisonment is appropriate”.

Dare was jailed for 28 months and a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing will take place at a future date.