An estate agency employee who was taken on to manage the business’s accounts stole over £10,000 – leaving just 53p in the account.
Karen Wright was hired by her friend Rebecca Scoffield, the owner of Scoffield Stone in Hilton, Derby, after Wright’s husband died.
But Scoffield’s kindness was repaid by Wright stealing almost every penny, leaving the business close to collapse.
Wright admitted fraud and theft.
A statement read out in court on behalf of Rebecca Scoffield said: “This crime has caused me a lot of heartache.
“Not only have I had to deal with the financial impact, I also had to deal with one of my best friends stealing from me.
“I have almost lost my business. I put Karen in a position of trust.
“She was supposed to help me and the business but instead she’s caused a lot of stress and it’s put my other employees at risk.
“The company has lost credibility with the banks and with Rightmove. It was a complete disgrace and disregard for her duties.”
Asif Munir, in mitigation, said that Wright was in a “very controlled relationship” and had no control over her finances. When her husband died, she did not know how to deal with her money, ran up debts and spent a lot of money on her two young children.
The court heard that Wright had repaid the money she stole from her friend and that she had no previous convictions.
Sentencing her to eight months in prison, Judge Jonathan Taaffe said: “It gives me no pleasure to announce the sentence of the court in this matter and sometimes the court has to steel itself to perform its public duty.
“I acknowledge the problems you have suffered and you have two relatively young children at home; however, this is a staggering breach of trust that has taken place over a substantial period of time.
“It is a breach of trust not just against your friend who, out of the goodness of her heart, gave you a job in her business, but also against the employees and customers of that business.
“While I accept the business might not have been in the best economic position, in difficult trading times you have almost single-handedly taken this business down.”
Comment deleted at request of poster.
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Distressing case for the business owner and the remaining team but you do need to read the article again as the widow was the lady who stole the money. The business owner gave her a job when her husband died.
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Oops – so she did. Time to dislike my own comment and beg mercy from the moderators to delete the mistake!
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Nevertheless, the scale and heartlessness of the theft is hard to imagine, especially in your best friend’s business.
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8 months jail is harsh.. i never understand how a smalll business can not notice 10k going missing…and she paid it all back…she either had a **** solicitor or Asif was a bit harsh.
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As the victim in this case I would like to clarify the following facts.Karen had been my friend for 14 Years and our children had grown up together, When Karen’s husband died 6 years ago he left her £500,000. I took Karen under my wing and gave her a job. She worked for me for 6 years without putting a foot wrong. Karen was a much trusted friend and never in a million years would I ever have thought she would steal from me, why would she with half a million pounds of her own? Karen spent the entire £500,000 and then got into financial difficulties with various creditors, this came to light when it was discovered she had been stealing from my company bank account. She stole every penny she could get her hands on and only when we started getting phone calls from people the business should have paid did I check the accounts I have always had a substantial sum in the company bank account. Karen has admitted to making 60 cash Transfers to her own account from my company & making 90 fraudulent cashpoint withdrawals and taking out credit in my name using my personal information to cover her theft. Karen has now sadly gone to prison & I miss her as she was part of my life for so long. I don’t hate her and I will survive personally and in business but I am devastated by her deceit & will find it hard to trust again.
,
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RMS197 – Sorry to hear the issues you have gone through, we all feel we can trust staff and especially with good friends that are staff.
I hope your business goes from strength to strength after these sad issues.
Do not tar all future staff with the same brush, do not let her affect your relationships from this point forward. Maybe just have a monthly check on the accounts to make sure your good nature is not being taken advantage of.
I am sure all the readers here at Eye wish you all the best going forward.
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And so it seems my original, deleted comment was slightly closer to the mark than the story let on.
Personal stories like these point out the tragedies that happen every day. Desperate people do desperate things but desperate actions are very rarely good ones.
Rebecca, I’m sorry what happened to your business, but more sorry what happened to you.
Fingers crossed all works out going forward.
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totally feel for you mate. at least you had justice. I am about 2.5k a month down from bloke who nicked some of my landlords. That was 5 years ago and still counting. He now has a mercedez and works from his lounge watching trisha all day..no justice.
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Same as when an x employee steals your landlords and sets up round the corner. Trouble is the media and law seem to protect these people and label them as enterprising.
Yes yes get a contract signed that is un-enforcable and yes yes look after the staff and they wont leave…but in the real world….it doesnt always work.
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