Mother used firm's credit card in £8k fraud

Emma Hartshorn blew most of the money on hotel stays, spas, watching football matches, restaurants and a sunshine Caribbean holiday, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told yesterday.

The 37-year-old was working as a personal assistant at the Royal Mail engineering Company in Halfords Lane, West Bromwich, when she turned to crime, revealed Mr Andrew Vout, prosecuting.

He continued: "There was a significant degree of trust placed in her. She was the personal assistant to the director and had charge of the company credit card to be used for company business only. She misused it to order goods and services for her own use.

"The spending included hotel stays, meals out, football matches and a holiday in Barbados."

Mr Vout said Hartshorn got away with the scam for around 12 months before her bosses became suspicious in July last year and launched an investigation that disclosed she had been on an illicit 17 month long £7,876 spending spree.

The defendant immediately confessed to what she had done when interviewed by police probing the scam on August 16 last year. She alleged that she had been in financial difficulties and needed money to make ends meet but Judge Robin Onions declared: "That is not borne out by the facts.

Mr David Bratt, defending, conceded: "Some of the payments were for things that were not essential but others were." He added: "She is a dedicated hard working, and normally trustworthy, individual who had been in constant employment since this happened. It was an aberration. She was in a difficult marriage and at times had been without a penny to her name."

He said that her marriage had broken down and she was now living like a 'nomad' on benefits, moving between the homes of friends with her 16 year old daughter.

Hartshorn formerly of Penkhull, Stoke and of previous good character, admitted fraud between February 2 2012 and July 26 last year and was given a 20 week jail sentence suspended for two years with 200 hours unpaid work and £2,500 compensation.

Judge Robin Onions told her: "This was an unpleasant offence. For reasons only you know, you started abusing the trust placed in you to waste a lot of money on things that you did not need. It is easy to spend other people's money but you have now rendered yourself unemployable in a position of trust. I am told that there is no equity in your matrimonial home, that you have no assets and are effectively sofa surfing with your daughter at the moment. You must have some very understanding friends."