Jail for the shopaholic

A senior executive who pocketed more than £170,000 of her employer’s cash to feed her shopping addiction has been jailed for 15 months.

Jasbeer Kaur, 36, worked as operations manager at the Hansard Society – a charity researching and promoting parliamentary democracy – between 2010 and 2013.

She managed to siphon of £28,911 of the small organisation’s funds by cooking up false invoices and putting her own account details on them.

Kaur would also doctor client’s invoices upwards, then pocket the difference when she paid the amount due.

She also began charging clients processing fees and trousering the cash.

No one at the Hansard Society noticed the scam, and Kaur wasn’t rumbled until taking up a post with the Association of Independent Healthcare Organisations in 2013.

Instead, her boss at Hansard, Fiona Booth, helped Kaur secure a job at AIHO when she moved to take on the role of chief executive.

The company is a trade body representing independent healthcare providers in the UK.

Kaur continued her scam, and helped herself to £141,470 before going on maternity leave in the summer of 2015.

Before taking time off, she had been very careful to alter computer records to cover her tracks.

Once AIHO realised the extent of the discrepancies between the books and it’s actual finances, it launched an internal enquiry and advised the Hansard Society to do the same.

Kaur made full admissions to both staff at AIHO and police, and later pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by abuse of position.

Jailing her for 15 months Judge John Bevan QC said: ‘This I say frankly is a most unpleasant case to have to sentence.

‘On the one hand there are a large number of aggravating features.

‘You were in a senior position in both organisations and you were taken by Fiona Booth from one organisation to another.

‘You continued the fraud that you had started at the Hansard Society when you went to AIHO – it lasted a total period of five years.’

‘You were in an administrative position, which is an abuse of trust on a considerable scale.

‘It involved a large amount of money – £170,000 – and your job involved receiving invoices, and you had access to invoices, records and banking information.

‘It was sophisticated in that computer records were altered so that when the details were checked, those doing the checking had no way of knowing they were looking at fabricated accounts.

‘It came to light – as it so often does – when you weren’t there. You were away on maternity leave.’

The court heard that since admitting the fraud, Kaur and her husband have sold their house and paid back all but £19,000, which is owed to the Hansard Society.

The couple are now living with her husband’s elderly parents and their 16-month-old son at the grandparents home in Swindon.

Kaur offered to pay of the balance at a rate of £375 per month if she were to be spared jail.

Daren Samat, for Kaur, said: ‘This is a case of abject dishonesty, but there’s somebody behind this who isn’t dishonest, she’s a perfectly decent honourable individual and that was the view taken by those who had employed her.’

‘The defendant’s husband has used his redundancy money and they are desperate to put right what has been done wrong.’

Mr Samat hinted at Kaur’s mental health problems, but she declined to have them outlined in open court.

‘It sounds awfully greedy to have taken such a large amount of money but plainly there was a trigger point in her life that changed things for the worst, and she was receiving help for pre-existing anxiety and depression,’ said Mr Samat.

‘She embarked on spending that was almost reckless, spending that was spiraling out of control.’

Kaur, of (35) Highclere Avenue, Swindon, Wiltshire, admitted two counts of fraud by abuse of position.

She did not react as she was led to the cells.

ENDS