Woman jailed for 18 months after taking nearly £58,000 from her employer
A company's former secretary and accountant who took nearly £58,000 from her employer has been sent to prison for 18 months.
Lyndsey Beckett, aged 44, of River Lane, in Waters Upton, Telford, appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday for sentencing after pleading guilty to fraud by abuse of position at Telford Magistrates Court in June last year.
The court was told that Beckett took a total of £57,886.85 from a family agricultural machinery firm called Gwaza over a period of 10 months in 2021.
The Shrewsbury-based firm's managing director Victor Edwards discovered in November 2021 that the company credit card used by Beckett had been declined after hitting its £10,000 spending limit.
Mr Edwards then launched a company audit which discovered the full nature of Beckett's fraud.
The court heard that the audit discovered that bank payments had been made to Beckett's husband's company, Beckett Construction, which started struggling during the pandemic.
Beckett was sacked from Gwaza, which had been founded in 1967, and after severance pay she was left with a bill of £47,085.
A county court judgement against Beckett later meant she owed £53,977, which she attempted to raise by selling her house after being unable to make payments.
The court was told that Gwaza had even attempted to buy Edwards' house to sort the issue out but the property had major structural problems and the sale fell through.
Police became involved in January 2023 and criminal proceedings began.
Mr Edwards provided a victim impact statement to the court saying that employees had lost trust with the business as well as some salary and bonuses.
The court heard that Beckett had no previous convictions and was of previous good character and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
Judge Anthony Lowe was told in Beckett's mitigation that things had "spiralled out of control" for her after her husband's business started to struggle.
She also has illness in the family, and had not told them that she may be going to prison. She was the sole breadwinner but had been "shocked" by the total value of the fraud.
Judge Lowe told Beckett: "I am sure that had it not been a combination of Covid, the pressure that your husband's business was under and the additional pressures of her parents that you would never have committed these offences."
But he added: "A lot of people were in the same position and had other personal issues but they did not commit the same offences."
The judge added that Beckett had broken trust of her employers and the incident had put doubt in employees minds about the way the company was being run.
Judge Lowe sent Beckett down for 18 months and ordered her to pay a victims surcharge.