9:14 am, October 13, 2022
A skint sales executive has avoided jail despite admitting to stealing thousands of pounds from customers in order to clear her debts.
Grandmother Lisa Hargreaves defrauded nine customers out of a combined £2,377, while working at Farnell Land Rover in Leeds in 2019.
The defendant, aged 47, took customers’ card details and transferred money from their banks into a GoHenry account, designed for children.
Hargreaves was in fact overseeing the account and pocketing the money herself in a bid to pay off debt that had been accumulated by her ex-partner.
Her crimes were uncovered when a customer noticed that £80 had been taken from his bank and made a complaint.
An investigation later found that Hargreaves head stolen from nine customers between January and April 2019, with amounts ranging between £80 and £684.
The Yorkshire Evening Post reports that she declined to take part in an internal investigation at work and was sacked from her job at the dealership.
She also gave a no comment interview to police before eventually owning up to her crimes and pleading guilty to nine counts of theft.
Appearing at Leeds Crown Court, prosecutor Daniel Penman said that Hargreaves had been responsible for sensitive card information from customers in order to arrange vehicle deposits.
However, after two years working at the showroom she began ‘siphoning’ extra funds to her own bank accounts.
Stuart Field, mitigating, said his client had been left ‘at the end of her tether’ after coming out of a seven-year abusive relationship, which had left her saddled with debts ran up by her ex partner.
He said: ‘She had just come out of a seven-year relationship in which she not only suffered physical abuse, she also suffered financially as well.
‘None of this excuses her dipping into the coffers of her employer’s customers. It’s something she bitterly regrets.’
The court heard that since the incident, the mother of two has worked in Dubai and saved up to help pay back the stolen funds.
She was handed a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to pay back the £2,377.
The judge also put her on a two-month electronic tag curfew.
Addressing the defendant, judge Simon Phillips KC said: ‘In a nub, you defrauded nine individuals who placed their trust in you and your employer.
‘Your employer will have suffered some reputational value as a consequence.
‘You have many people down but you have worked hard to clear your debt and can repay the sums stolen.’
Hargreaves had two previous convictions for shop thefts dating back to 1991, when she was a juvenile.
