An accountant from High Wycombe has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after admitting six counts of fraud against her employers, totalling over £250,000, which the court heard was spent on luxury holidays, a new car, jewellery and clothes
Following an investigation by Thames Valley Police Lynne Pleaden was charged with fraud by abuse of position at three of her previous places of employment.
At Amersham Crown Court Pleaden and her partner, Bernard Trumpet, pleaded guilty. Trumpet was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months and ordered to do 50 hours unpaid work.
The court heard that Pleaden carried out unauthorised bank transfers while working as an accountant for Flowerland Garden Centre in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, and fraudulently obtained £38,208 in cheques and £32,527 in bank account credits from the firm.
She left that company in November 2012 and joined Silverson Machines Ltd in nearby Chesham, where she arranged for £169,414 to be paid into Trumpet's bank account using fraudulent cheques and transfers.
Pleaden’s behaviour aroused suspicions were raised and the couple were arrested and interviewed by police. While on bail on charges of fraud and possible money laundering offences, Pleaden took a job at a third company, Integrated Security Information Services, where she also passed money into Trumpet’s account.
The court was told that a total of £267,000 taken from all three companies was put through Trumpet's bank account, although the total amount Pleaden stole was higher because she used some of it to directly pay Virgin Holidays for two fortnight-long Christmas and New Year breaks at an exclusive spa resort in Barbados.
The court heard Pleaden has eight sets of previous convictions for 36 offences dating from 1999, when she was jailed for 15 months for a charge of theft by employee. Pleaden was jailed in 2003 for eight counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception and in 2008 for six charges of making false representations to make a financial gain.
Commenting on Pleaden’s latest jail sentence of 42 months DC Sarah Simpson, investigating officer based in local CID at High Wycombe, said: ‘This sentencing is long awaited. Pleaden sought employment with various companies and used her financial knowledge to steal and launder large amounts of money to fund her lifestyle, with the help of her partner.
‘I hope that this gives closure to the victims and that they can recover from the financial damage that she and her partner have caused.’
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