Lingerie worker stole £18k from employer and spent it on pizza and store gift cards
A TRUSTED dad-of-two stole thousands of pounds from the Derby firm which employed him and spent it on gift cards for pizza.
Steven Farmer hid Paypal transactions he made using the firm’s account for deliveries to his home from Domino’s and Papa John’s.
Over a two-year period, the 32-yearold used his position in charge of e-commerce and fleeced Pear Treebased Camille Lingerie Ltd of almost £20,000.
And in a victim impact statement a company director told how he felt “betrayed, angry and disappointed” at a staff member he had supported.
Jailing Farmer for 10 months at Derby Crown Court, Recorder Stuart Sprawson said: “Between 2018 and 2020 you deliberately defrauded your employer in what was a significant abuse of trust.
“You had responsibility for the e-commerce side of the business and no doubt used your knowledge and in a deliberate and calculated way took advantage for your own personal gain.
“You archived these transactions in the hope they would not be unearthed.
“The victim impact statement I had read to me showed the consequences caused a significant loss at a time when the company had suffered a considerable loss of business and they had to make two people redundant.”
Lauren Butts, prosecuting, said Farmer worked for Camille Lingerie, in Cotton Brook Road, between 2016 and 2020.
She said after he left the firm in February of last year, the firm checked the company’s Paypal account and found hidden transactions in an archived file.
Miss Butts said: “A large number of them were sent to two accounts later linked to the defendant and used to buy gift cards for firms including Domino’s, Papa John’s, Argos and Marks and Spencer. It was discovered that deliveries from them had been made to an address linked to the defendant.
“The total loss was some £18,471.77 of which £1,326 has been refunded by Paypal.”
Miss Butts said Farmer was interviewed by the police in April 2020 where he made admissions as to what he had done knowing it was dishonest. She said he told them he believed the sum to be in the region of £8,000 to £10,000 and that he had got into debt due to his addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.
Miss Butts said: “He said he worried about this every night when he had gone to bed.”
In a victim impact statement Vincent Sharp, financial director at Camille Lingerie, said: “I feel betrayed, angry and disappointed because I trusted him.
“We are a small family business and we loaned him money when he was in financial need and he still owes us.
“This was a significant loss at a time when the company suffered a downturn in revenue and in 2019 we had to make two members of staff redundant.” Farmer, of Norman Street, Ilkeston, admitted fraud. The offence put him in breach of a suspended sentence imposed in January, of last year, for offences including drink-driving and assaulting an emergency worker. He has 15 previous convictions for 26 offences. Laura Hocknell, mitigating, urged the judge to defer the sentence for six months to test her client to prove he can stay out of trouble.
She said: “Mr Farmer accepts that anyone looking at the facts and his previous convictions is going to take the view that an immediate prison sentence is the most obvious way forwards but he has now stopped drinking and stopped his abuse of prescription painkillers, sees his children every weekend and is working as a machine operator. That gives him some stability in his life.”
We are a small family business and we loaned him money when he was in financial need and he still owes us. Vincent Sharp