Brentwood woman convicted of six-figure fraud on company credit card
She used the card to pay for goods at Harrods as well as holidays to Mexico and Dubai
An Essex woman's been convicted of fraud after she stole more than £180,000 from her employer to fund a lavish lifestyle.
Anita Mirmohammadi had started working at a Brentwood-based family business as a manager in their finance team in 2018, entitling her to access to a business credit card.
Four years later, on 21 April 2022, as part of unrelated fraud checks on the company accounts, a number of unexplained transactions across the globe were found and banks, police and Action Fraud were contacted.
Officers established Mirmohammadi had been using her personally-issued credit card to fund herself, as well as making fraudulent invoices to extract even more money from the company accounts.
A total of £184,675.89 was siphoned from the company – £126,381.19 by credit card and £63,294.70 from the business account via invoices.
Luxury purchases at Harrods, Selfridges, Mercedes Benz, as well as holidays to Mexico, Turkey and Dubai were found throughout her employment.
When Harrods carried out their own investigation they found Mirmohammadi on CCTV making a purchase with the company card just a month before she was caught.
She also used it to fund regular spending on Apple, Amazon, eBay, Uber and Zara, as well as Thames Water and Harley Street Dental.
Essex Police arrested and questioned Mirmohammadi at Gatwick Airport as she returned from holiday in Dubai on 22 May 2022, but answered no comment to all questions.
She was later charged with fraud by false representation on 10 February 2023 and, following a seven-day trial was found guilty at Basildon Crown Court last week.
Speaking after the conviction, Detective Constable Karen Venables said:
“It was clear from the deception we found in these accounts that Mirmohammadi knew what she was doing was wrong and was trying to cover her tracks.
She frittered this money away – she thought she was entitled to the finer things and it didn’t matter to her who was paying for them.
Our Economic Crime Team has worked closely with the banks, businesses and Action Fraud to piece together the full extent of her offending, and we now look to a future sentencing where we hope she faces the consequences of her considerable crimes."
Mirmohammadi has been remanded in custody until 9 May to appear at Basildon Crown Court again for sentencing.