Cleaner handed £90k in refund error at charity shop – and kept it
A CLEANER who refused to say what happened to the money after a charity shop accidentally gave her a £90,000 refund has been spared jail.
Comfort Konadu, 52, had returned an item to a Mencap shop for a £9 refund but staff inadvertently keyed the wrong amount into the card machine.
Instead of immediately repaying the cash, Konadu transferred £57,000 to other accounts, including those belonging to her family in her native Ghana. Konadu, who has six children
‘18 months of profits’
and 12 grandchildren, admitted theft and was sentenced to 15 months in prison, suspended for two years, at Manchester Crown Court.
The judge heard that £59,000 has been returned to Mencap but £31,000 – representing 18 months of profits for the individual shop – remains outstanding.
Konadu, who has lived in the UK for 15 years and has indefinite leave to remain, will now face a Proceeds of Crime hearing, where she will be expected to return the rest of the money. It is not known what the cash was spent on. If the £31,000 is not returned the charity, which helps people with learning difficulties, will have to cover the loss because it was caused by human error. Two workers were dismissed over the mistake.
Konadu, of Openshaw, Manchester, initially claimed she was expecting £12,000 into her account and said she assumed she had legitimately received the money. She said when she realised the sum was higher than expected, she tried to raise the issue with her bank. But police found she didn’t inform the bank or charity.
The charity managed to recoup £40,000 of the missing money within days after it was frozen by Konadu’s bank, Barclays. It was later repaid another £19,000.
Max Saffman, defending, said: ‘Until this windfall, she was leading a very, very modest lifestyle and she is a hardworking lady the vast majority of the time.
‘The money was more than she could ever have dreamt of and temptation got the better of her.’
Judge Nicholas Dean QC told Konadu: ‘You have brought shame on yourself, and I dare say to your family.’ The judge accepted the money was an ‘unexpected windfall’ and told Konadu that had the theft been deliberate ‘you would now be facing an immediate sentence of imprisonment’.
A Mencap spokesman said: ‘We remain hopeful that the stolen funds can be recovered so they can be used to help change the lives of people with a learning disability.’