Southend: Woman jailed for stealing £217,000 from charity employer

Work by specialist fraud detectives has ensured a woman who stole more than £200,000 from the charity she worked for has been jailed for three years.

Officers from our Economic Crime Team identified that 39 year-old Isabella George had abused her position as office manager to withdraw large amounts of money from the charity’s account.

They went through the painstaking process of studying withdrawals between December 2017 and August 2023 and identified around 200 withdrawals totalling nearly £41,000.

Detectives also established George, of Wansfell Gardens, Southend, had fraudulently signed 96 cheques totalling more than £171,000 before then cashing them, and using the charity’s credit card without permission to make purchases of more than £9,000.

In total, detectives identified she had stolen nearly £217,000.

She admitted charges of fraud by false representation, false accounting, and fraud by abuse of position at Basildon Crown Court on 28 March.

At the same court last week (Thursday 26 June) she was sentenced to three years in prison.

Detective Constable Lee Pudney, from the Economic Crime Team, said:

“This was a meticulous investigation that examined hundreds of transactions to establish the full extent of Isabella George’s crimes.

“She abused her position within the charity to steal a huge amount of money and spend it on things like dentistry work.

“In an attempt to hide her offending she falsified company accounts over the course of five years and admitted using the accounting system to incorrectly assign purchases, cheques, and cash withdrawals to legitimate company projects.

“This was planned out and cynical. But thanks to the painstaking work carried out she was left with no option but to admit her crimes and is now behind bars.”

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