Director ‘nicked £300k to go shopping’

A finance director stole £300,000 from recruitment giant Reed to indulge her ‘love of shopping’ and then swindled £71,000 from another firm while she awaited trial, a court heard.

Karen Carberry, 49, plundered Reed’s accounts to splash out in high street stores, buy a hot tub and shower presents on her disabled teenage daughter between 2009 and 2012.

She was rumbled after junior staff became suspicious about errors in her accounts.

It was only then that bosses discovered Carberry had used a bogus CV and forged documents to get a job with the company in 2001.

She was jailed for four years in October 2014 after being convicted of fraud charges following an Old Bailey trial.

It was revealed yesterday (tues) that Carberry stole £71,000 from Nexus Group Holdings Ltd after getting a job with the corporation while she awaited trial in 2014.

The financial planning firm did not bring criminal charges over the theft, but Carberry was ordered to repay the cash following a civil case.

She must now sell her £213,000 house in Epsom, Surrey, to pay back the cash.

But the Old Bailey heard she still owes hundreds of thousands of pounds to Reed.

Nick Robinson, defending, said Carberry was ordered to pay Reed £250,000 in 2015.

The total figure included the share of her equity in her family home, money in her bank accounts and cash kept in pension schemes.

Carberry, who was briefly released from prison, then locked up again because she didn’t repay the stolen cash, will now have to pay back Nexus and Reed with the profits from the sale of her home.

‘Following her arrest, but before her imprisonment, she was able to get employment,’ said Mr Robinson.

‘She stole substantial amounts of money from them as well.

‘The company [Nexus] brought a civil action against her and were able to secure a charge over her home.’

The court heard Carberry will have to wait until she sells her home and repays Nexus to see how much she has left to pay back to Reed.

The Legal Aid Agency also secured a charge over her home to pay for legal costs, but prosecutors persuaded them not to pursue the order so any remaining money could be paid back to Reed.

Prosecutor James Norman said: ‘Everything depends on what price Ms Carberry can obtain for her house, it’s possible, house prices in London being what they are, that she will be able to satisfy the order.’

Mr Norman said if there is a shortfall between the £250,000 Carberry agreed to repay Reed in 2015 and the profit from the sale of her home, ‘the loser ultimately will be the defrauded employer’.

Judge Stephen Kramer, QC, said: ‘If the property doesn’t realise enough to satisfy the charge and the confiscation order, there will have to be some sort of variation.’

During Carberry’s 2014 trial, the Old Bailey heard how she conned her way into a senior accountant job in 2001 using a forged certificate and bogus CV.

Over the next 11 years she rose up through the ranks and by 2012 answered only to the Reed Group’s most senior accountant, who sat on the board and reported to the managing director.

Carberry started siphoning off large sums of money from the Reed accounts in 2009 while in charge of the company’s finances in Malta.

Over the next three years she transferred a total of £303,317.60 into her personal bank accounts.

Mr Norman had told jurors: ‘She was an avid shopper and very generous to her family.

‘She would often have items delivered to the office and would joke about her love of shopping.

‘There came a time when the defendant was unable to fund the lifestyle to which she aspired for herself and her family and she turned to fraud.’

Carberry used her control over the Maltese accounts to hide bogus payments made into her credit card and was able to ‘blag’ her way through audits.

Defending her shopping habits, Carberry insisted she made most of her purchases online.

‘They were personal goods, handbags and shoes, children’s clothes.

‘We have a disabled daughter that does gymnastics and a son that plays football.

‘I don’t go out, I enjoy buying shoes.’

The court heard most of the stolen money went on ‘high street stores, shoes and handbags, DVDs and computer games, a bit of gym equipment, £2,000 towards a jacuzzi and modest holidays in Greece.’

Carberry, of (16) Mavis Close, Epsom, Surrey, denied and was convicted of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception between July 1, 2001 and July 31, 2001, fraud by abuse of position between 6 August 2009 and 9 July 2012 and two counts of using a false instrument between 13 August and 29 August 2012.
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