A pregnant woman who managed to syphon off more than £900,000 by forging her boss’s signature has been ordered to pay back just £221,000 or go to prison.
Danielle Longstaffe was spared prison because she was pregnant, after defrauding her transport firm where she had worked for nine years out of eye-watering sums.
The 33-year-old was being chased by loan sharks when she transferred cash to her friends and family under a fake name.
At the time, Newcastle Crown Court heard the fraud was to the value of £370,000.
Now, at a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, it was said the benefit figure was £920,285.20p.
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Her ‘available amount’ was £221,818,50, which she must pay back within three months or face two years in prison in default.
At her sentencing hearing, the court heard she carried out the fraud because she was being chased by loan sharks.
She transferred £218,000 to herself and others and also hired vehicles using the company’s supplier.
A judge said he had to have regard to Longstaffe’s unborn child while sentencing her and she avoided the prospect of having to give birth in prison when she got a suspended sentence.
She worked for Kaefer Ltd, in Jarrow, as a transport administrator and had been employed there since 2012.
A boss at the company identified that between £80,000 and £90,000 had gone missing between April and May 2022 and Longstaffe came under suspicion.
She had been transferring money from her employer’s account to herself and friends and family using false details to try to cover her tracks. She had also forged the signature of a transport manager, the court heard.
When confronted she confessed and helped her employer identify how much money she had stolen and where it had gone.
In total, there were £218,000 of unauthorised banking transactions.
There was also further fraudulent activity in relation to an unauthorised vehicle hire, using a supplier the company used. That resulted in 33 vehicles being missing. The total value of the cars and repairs was £141,000.
There was also more than £10,000 of unauthorised use of a company credit card. The total value of the fraud was £370,194. The company said there were also outstanding Tyne Tunnel and parking charges worth £19,000.
Longstaffe, of Church View, Gateshead, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position between September 1 2021 and May 13 2022.
She was sentenced to two years suspended for two years with a mental health treatment requirement.
Recorder Harry Vann told her: ‘It’s clear from banking records and what you said interview you took advantage of your position in a company where you had worked for nine years and decided, suddenly, after a period of successful employment, to start stealing enormous sums, they were enormous sums every single month.’
The judge said 300 of her colleagues were impacted by Longstaffe’s actions. But he said she has a history of mental ill health and cares for her elderly grandmother.
He added: ‘I have to take into account the impact on any pregnant woman. I have to have regard to the interests of the unborn child you carry.
‘Ordinarily speaking I would say such a crime demanded immediate custody. However the welfare of your unborn child takes precedence and must.’
Clare Anderson, defending, said: ‘She acknowledges this is serious criminal offending and that she’s at serious risk of an immediate custodial sentence.
‘This started because of difficulties she got herself into because of loan sharks. She was a well-respected employee at that company for nine years. Unfortunately she found an easy way to access cash.
‘It was a simple forged signature, which is not to underplay the magnitude of what happened. She’s wholly and utterly remorseful and she doesn’t wish to use her pregnancy as an excuse. She has not got pregnant to avoid any sentence that might be imposed.
‘This has been hanging over her for a considerable period of time and she just wants to know her fate.’
Miss Anderson added: ‘They were colleagues and friends of hers and she’s devastated she let them down.’