A trusted temp at a newly launched internet firm m

A trusted temp at a newly launched internet firm marketing the ‘images’ of professional football players has been cleared of taking part in an electronic sting on company coffers.

Marissa Spencer was alleged to have helped move pnds stlng 12,499 from the City account of Sports Profile in July last year by BACS transfer.

She was also said to have taken part in two botched attempts to repeat the scam the following month, but her boss at the firm had been alerted to the first illicit movement of money and was able to abort the later efforts.

However, at London’s Southwark Crown Court, Judge Peter Jackson directed a jury to return not guilty verdicts against 28-year-old Spencer on charges of obtaining a money transfer by deception, and two attempts to obtain cash.

Spencer, of Roman Road, Bow, east London, now faces a retrial over three theft charges alleging she stole a total of pnds stlng 700 from petty cash.

She claims
to have borrowed the money intending to repay it.

And Paul Russell, 29, of Champion Grove, Deptford, southeast London, also faces a retrial over the charge of obtaining the first money transfer, and two offences of attempting to obtain a money transfer.

Russell, who will face a separate jury later this year, claims he knew nothing about an alleged fraud but had agreed to allow an acquaintance the use of two bank accounts to receive money.

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