Trusted school bursar stole £200k – but only has to hand back £76k
A SCHOOL finance chief who stole £200,000 to fund expensive holidays has been ordered to repay less than half the money.
Ghislain Smithson, 52, was condemned as ‘wicked’ by a judge when he jailed her for 32 months after she used the school credit card and diverted cash from reserves.
The thefts had a huge knock-on effect on the school, which had to leave teaching posts vacant, cut costs and fundraise to plug the hole in its finances.
But Smithson has been ordered to repay just £76,000 after a Proceeds of Crime hearing heard that was the total sum of her assets. If she does not pay within three months, then a year could be added to the prison term imposed last December when she pleaded guilty to theft.
Carlisle Crown Court heard then how she diverted more £100,000 into her bank from Keswick School’s funds from 2012 to 2018.
Smithson also used the school account to buy herself holidays including a £4,200 luxury ten- day Caribbean break to Antigua.
With the school credit card, she bought £30,000 in foreign currency and splashed out on Jet2 Holidays and hotels. Smithson, who spent ten years at the mixed secondary in Cumbria, admitted stealing £188,000 but prosecutors believe the likely figure was £208,094.
She was in day-to-day control of the purse strings but a software glitch let her authorise payments using just her signature, despite two normally being needed.
Smithson, of Cockermouth, Cumbria, created fake companies and invoices to channel cash for her own benefit. At the same time, she was attending budget meetings when colleagues were trying to cut costs and avoid job losses.
Her illegal activity was uncovered when she moved jobs and a finance officer checked the accounts.
Jailing Smithson, Judge Nicholas Barker said: ‘It is the context of the money being stolen by you in a position of trust which makes the dishonesty so wicked.
‘You have left a stain on the school and that has a lasting impact and had an impact upon the children.’
Prosecutor Gerard Rogerson said an ‘overwhelming’ emotional burden had been placed on other staff by Smithson stealing school cash to ‘fund her own luxury lifestyle’.
Headmaster Simon Jackson said: ‘Her actions have taken money away from some of the most vulnerable and deprived schoolchildren – and she sat in meetings where these hard decisions were made.
‘These actions in breach of trust harmed children, their families and the educational profession.
‘The austerity of the last seven years has made the life of the school tough. It was a struggle.’