Lesbian lovers spared jail for £ 30k John Lewis scam
LESBIAN lovers working at John Lewis have been spared jail after conning the department store out of £ 30,000.
Ruth Vaughan, 27, and Lavinia Kitching, 29, worked in the returns section.
They bought Armani watches, MacBook laptops and iPads, plus designer clothes from the store.
They then used their jobs to receive refunds after making it look as if they – and unsuspecting colleagues – had returned the goods. In fact the lovers kept the items – then sold them on internet auction site e- Bay.
They were caught when John Lewis investigators linked them to eBay sales of new goods from the store, including the MacBook laptops, iPhones and iPads.
The fraud took place between April and November 2015 while both women worked at John Lewis’s national returns centre in Shirley, West Midlands. Prosecutor Madhu Rai told Birmingham Crown Court this week: “This was a well thought through plan by both defendants, targeting their employer.”
Vaughan, who lives in a £ 450,000 detached house in Stourbridge, and Kitching, of Knowle, West Midlands, admitted one count of theft and one of fraud.
Vaughan was jailed for 14 months, suspended for a year, and Kitching for 16 months, also suspended for a year. They were both ordered to do 240 hours unpaid work and pay £ 250 costs.
Judge Philip Parker, QC, said: “Over a period of seven months you set about stealing from your employer.
“Working there you knew how to take advantage of the system. You were able to manipulate matters.
“The ugly feature, as far as the court is concerned, is the gross breach of trust and the sophistication of the fraud, in terms of it being in- house and your attempts to cover up what you were doing.
“You made it appear as if other members of staff had returned these items to cover your tracks.” The court heard the women have since paid most of the money back.
Will Harrington, defending, said the pair were ashamed of the fraud.
He added: “This occurred at difficult time.
“Kitching had broken up from a long- term relationship and was struggling financially.
“She had formed a new relationship with Vaughan.
“This was an both of them.
“In order to pay some bills they embarked in this course of conduct.
“It is not them living the high life.”
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