Jailed for £200,000 office fraud
TRUSTED EMPLOYEE STOLE £200,000 TO FUND LIFESTYLE
DRIVING a Range Rover, living in an expensive house and holidaying in Mexico, Amanda Toward seemed to be doing very well for herself for an office manager.
To the outside world, she was a success but she had a secret – her “extravagant” lifestyle was being funded by a gross betrayal of the small company she worked for.
The boss of Gateshead-based events management firm Big Purple Productions, Eddie McKay, had done everything he could to help Toward, including giving her extra hours and time off to deal with family problems.
But she repaid his kindness by plundering more than £200,000 from the firm for herself – threatening the existence of the company in the process. Now the 45-year-old has been jailed for more than three years after pleading guilty to a fraud spanning four years.
Judge Edward Bindloss, at Newcastle Crown Court, told her: “Your position is aggravated by the fact Mr McKay seems to have been a good and generous employer who looked after your interests.
“His good-natured approach to you and your role was something you utterly betrayed because all the time you were stealing from him and the company behind his back and that threatened the company and its employees.
“The money went on alcohol for you and other extravagances. I’ve read you drove a Range Rover, had expensive holidays such as in Mexico, you had an expensive residence.
“You abused your position of trust and responsibility and this fraudulent activity was conducted over a sustained period of time.”
The firm, described as a small family business, was set up in 2013 with five members of staff, including Toward, who had worked for Mr McKay previously as a director of another events company.
She initially worked for Big Purple Productions part-time but, at her suggestion and following a presentation she gave about what she could do to further the company, her role became full-time.
Mr McKay knew she wanted extra money and felt he should support her by increasing her hours, the court heard. Her role running the office included looking after company finances and only she and Mr McKay had access to the firm’s bank account. Prosecutor Michael Bunch said: “They socialised at business functions together, he helped her when she had problems at home, he gave her support over and above that what would normally be expected for an employer supporting an employee.”
It was while Toward was in Mexico in August last year that the fraud started to unravel. Mr McKay noticed a transaction on a bank statement showing a correct payment had been made, followed by duplicate payment two days later.
Mr Bunch said: “Presuming this to be a clerical error, a request was made to the bank to sort the matter out. That same day a member of the fraud team at Lloyds Bank made contact with the complainant and said it was not a clerical error but a deliberate duplicate payment and that the second payment had been transferred to the defendant’s own personal bank account.”
In total, Toward, of no fixed address, had fraudulently obtained £204,216.74. Mr Bunch said: “It threatened the existence of the company.”
Mr McKay had sold a house to set the business up and his parents had taken out loans to help him, the court heard. Toward, who was still on holiday, returned to find the locks on the business changed and she was dismissed.
When arrested, she told police: “I got myself into financial difficulties and family stress. It became something of an addiction.”
She admitted fraud and was jailed for three years and four months.
Jamie Adams, defending, said: “One can’t help but feel enormous sympathy for the victim and she is completely and utterly ashamed of what she did. became a vicious cycle.”
The court heard Toward had set up a dress hire shop but that was not funded by the fraud.