£38,000 office fraudster walks free after judge says: I hate sending women to jail
A JUDGE allowed a £38,000 fraudster to walk free after admitting he ‘hates sending women to prison’.
Judge Owen Davies QC made the extraordinary remark as office manager Sophie Franklin was convicted of launching a luxury spending spree on her company’s debit card.
He told her: ‘I hate sending to prison women who have not been to prison before and who have been convicted for the first time of a criminal offence.’
Instead the judge said Franklin should be ‘out in the community where you belong’.
The 30-year-old had helped herself to thousands of pounds under her bosses’ noses at Circle Square advertising agency, in Bermondsey, southeast London. Between January 2014 and August last year, Franklin used the company card to buy designer clothes, make-up, and sunglasses for her and her friends. She also splashed cash on holidays to Italy, the Greek island of Pathos and flights to Hong Kong.
She also bought Apple gadgets, items from John Lewis and theatre tickets – all at the company’s expense.
The trusted employee lavished £7,000 on taxis and ran up huge hotel and mobile phone bills, the court heard.
Her deception only came to light when she left for a new job and her replacement began to audit invoices.
Franklin, of Basildon, Essex, admitted one count of fraud at Inner London Crown Court. But the judge said she had learnt her lesson and sentenced her to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years.
She was also ordered to perform 100 hours’ community service. The judge said ‘nothing would be achieved at all’ with a custodial sentence. He added: ‘The punitive effect should not be the incarceration of a woman of nearly 31.
‘She should be out in the community where you belong, expunging your crime by unpaid work.’
Bill McGivern, prosecuting, said: ‘This was a relatively small company and she was on a position of some trust.’ But defending Franklin, Robert Dacre told the court she felt ‘genuine remorse’ and was repaying the money from her £2,000 monthly salary.