Secretary stole £160k from Bradford garden centre - but where did money go, judge asks
Lynda Whalley, who had worked for the company for 25 years, falsified accounts for nearly a decade in order to buy a new kitchen worth £4,500 and an all-inclusive holiday, a court heard.
Whalley, 64, was jailed for 32 months and ordered her to pay a third of the cash within three months.
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Hide AdAfter the hearing, her former employer Andrew Walmsley called her theft “sickening beyond belief”.
Mr Walmsley, who runs ACW Garden Centre in Bradford and a sister company in Bingley, said: “I trusted her. I even invited her to my own wedding.”
He added: “For years we were just wondering what was going wrong - one of our companies was doing really well and the other wasn’t.
“I began thinking it was me, what I was doing, whether or not it was my management. But now we know why.”
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Hide AdBradford Crown Court heard Whalley’s deceit was uncovered last November when accountants found two faked invoices for £950.
Prosecutor Mark Brookes said: “The defendant then came clean and had a meeting with Mr Walmsley and two other executives, where she paid the money back, along with a letter of her resignation.
“But when the company looked further into it - there was a lot more money that was not accounted for. She was then arrested and admitted the full amount of £165,994 being fraudulently taken.”
Recorder David Dixon told her: “We have heard that you spent some money on a kitchen and a holiday you bought yourself - but where is the rest of it?
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Hide Ad“You were trusted to hold the bank cards and passwords to these accounts for years. And stealing this amount equals to roughly £18,500 each year.
“That is a large amount of money for a small and medium sized business to lose year upon year.”
Whalley, of Allerton, Bradford, admitted theft at an earlier hearing.