Former landlady jailed for stealing nearly £70,000 from pub’s savings fund
robin.jenkins@reachplc.com
AFORMER pub landlady has been jailed for stealing nearly £70,000 from its Christmas savings fund.
Sally Johnstone was sentenced to 22-and-a-half months in prison at Gloucester Crown Court for theft and fraud while she ran the Kings Arms in Cheltenham.
The 54-year-old former landlady at the pub in Gloucester Road appeared before the court via video link.
She had pleaded guilty last month to two charges of theft from locals who invested in the pub’s Christmas savings fund.
One charge stated that she stole £30,000 from the fund between December 1, 2017 and December 30, 2018 and the other that she stole £39,292 from the savers of the fund between December 1, 2018 and August 30, 2019.
Johnstone also admitted a separate offence of fraud involving £30,000 between October 1 and December 30 2018.
Judge Ian Lawrie QC said her “persistent thieving” took place over two years and saw her steal money from the Christmas savings fund and defraud a friend, Ian Maxwell, of £30,000.
He said she took advantage of the fact that he had inherited money due to a bereavement, telling him she needed the loan for investment purposes when in fact she needed it either to cover her tracks or spend it on herself.
He said: “You indulged in a persistent course of thieving.”
The judge added that she did so in a calculated way and showed a “complete and selfish disregard for others”.
He mentioned some of the victims who had suffered financial hardship and emotional distress because of what happened.
They included a woman with terminal cancer who was saving for a holiday of a lifetime and a mother-of-seven who could not buy her children Christmas presents.
The judge said he took into account Johnstone’s previous good character and her remorse.
He ordered that £2,634 seized from the married mother-of-two be equally distributed to the club’s savers by way of compensation.
Earlier in the hearing, prosecutor Mary Cowe said Johnstone took on the running of the pub in 2016 before being suspended in July 2019 by Sheldon Inns.
At that time she assured people that the Christmas savings money was safe.
But when pub regular Mark Finch discovered she had not banked it as she should have, he challenged her and she told him she had “gambled it away”.
She said the total amount stolen from the club was £69,292, although £30,000 of that was repaid to people - albeit through money obtained fraudulently from Mr Maxwell.
Defending, Sarah Jenkins said Johnstone was on medication as a result of having an operation for a blocked aorta and feared for the future care of her elderly father, who was being shielded from the coronavirus.
Miss Jenkins said Johnstone had worked in a bar before but the Kings Arms was the first pub she had run.
What she thought might be a lucrative business turned out to be anything but and she struggled with financial pressures and a feeling that she was out of her depth.
The court heard Johnstone felt disgusted with herself and was very remorseful.
You indulged in a persistent course of thieving.
Judge Ian Lawrie QC