Newport woman jailed for defrauding charity out of £10,000s
The woman, from Newport, defrauded the charity out of more than £90,000 between 2016 and 2020
A woman has been jailed for 32 months after defrauding a charity out of tens of thousands of pounds with dozens of fraudulent transactions.
Tracy Parsons from Newport was sentenced this week at Bristol Crown Court after pleading guilty to fraud by abuse of position, false accounting and money laundering.
She was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday (10 October), which heard how Parsons was working at a Bristol-based charity from 2005 in different roles before becoming the HR and Finance Manager.
Parsons started taking money from the charity in July 2016, before carrying out 54 fraudulent transactions between the year she started and December 2020 - with the total taken reaching more than £94,000.
Police said that, in a bid to cover-up her crimes, Parsons provided the charity with falsified bank statements and paperwork - but this was uncovered when the charity carried out an audit of their accounts.
Because of her role in the charity at the time, Parsons was then asked to explain the difference where she confessed to taking the money.
In a statement, a representative from the charity said: "The loss came at the time of the pandemic when our future was very uncertain. This left the charity in an extremely vulnerable position.
"We were fundamentally shaken. The CEO was the victim of duplicitous behaviour and was directly lied to for years."
Parsons used the money to pay off debt and for generic living.
The Deputy Senior Investigating Officer, DS Louise Sinclair from the fraud team, said: "Parsons actions were against a charity which worked to better the lives of the community it served by planning community events, providing safe spaces and allowing people to connect and come together.
"She stole over a number of years and abused the trust afforded to her by the charity, its users and donors.
"Her actions are despicable and I hope this sentence will give the community some solace that she is being held responsible for what she has done."
A Proceeds of Crime hearing will follow in due course to look at recovering some of the funds.
If you think you’ve been a victim of fraud, contact your bank immediately and report it to Action Fraud online or by calling 0300 123 2040.