A fraudster has been jailed for four months after defrauding the agency where she worked.

Kelly Jane Hodd, 28, now unemployed, had earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by abuse of position.

She had defrauded JMA Associates, St Leonards on Sea, where she worked as an administrator, out of £4,720.

Sussex Police said Hodd got the job after falsely claiming she had held high-powered positions at American Express.

Hodd, who has previous convictions for fraud, won her employer’s trust and then wrote company cheques to her mother as well as to a private school.

She initially told police the money had been a loan, changing her plea to guilty one week before the trial was due to start.

PC Tess Warren, of the Hastings Investigations Team, said: “Hodd was a convincing liar who earned her victim’s trust before helping herself to her money.

“The victim in the case, who runs a small firm, feels this was a huge breach of trust and it made her question her own personal and professional relationships to a distressing degree.

“This case was never about the money for the victim; for her it was about the trust she had placed in Hodd being abused to such a degree.”

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