Here is a round up of the defendants who were sentenced to offences of fraud
(Top left to right) Jemma Lewis, Sharon Wathan, Haroon Zaman. (Bottom left to right) Kathryn MacDonald, Lucy Paginton, Ivo Lima.(Image: South Wales Police/Gwent Police/Dyfed-Powys Police)
Offences of fraud are some of the cruelest committed against offences as they almost always involve lies and deceit as well as a breach of trust. Victims can be left thousands of pounds out of pocket and feeling taken advantage of.
Some of the cases that appeared in front of Welsh courts in 2025 involved employees stealing from their employers., rogue builders fleecing money from customers while carrying out shoddy work, and people who have cheated the benefit system.
Here is a round up of fraud cases which appeared in Welsh courts in 2025.
Jemma Lewis
Jemma Lewis, 40, stole to fund her gambling addiction(Image: South Wales Police)
She stole more than £2.4m from the companies she worked for while receiving a salary of £200,000. The 40-year-old stole millions from the company where she’d worked for over 10 years in order to fund her gambling addiction.
Lewis’ actions caused considerable stress to other members of staff, causing one director to leave, another to lose out on his salary, and one woman unable to access her pension. It also meant the companies she worked for didn’t contribute enough tax.
Newport Crown Court heard that Lewis committed fraud against five different companies which were inside the same family of companies owned by James Davies. These included Daisy Vale Limited, Charnwood Accounts, Edward Davies Construction and Fastnet Properties Ltd.
She began working for Mr Davies in 2007, first holding a role as a receptionist. By 2017 she was the accountant for the group of companies after she had her accountancy training funded by the company. James Davies said Lewis was like a daughter to him, and felt like family.
However, when the company moved over to an online banking system financial problems began to arise. For the first time, the company began to see a substantial and unexplained downturn in profits.
When suspicions were raised over an increase in third party payments, Lewis officially resigned in 2023 and a new accountant took over.
When Lewis contacted him about her severance payment he noticed a link between her account details and a number of other payments on the account.
During the period between 2018 and 2023 the total payments to her account exceeded £3.6m. Once you remove her salary and other legitimate payments the total was still over £2.4m.
£1.4m of this was sent to known gambling companies but the figure is likely to be higher as it’s difficult to identify all gambling companies.
She also spent £67,000 on crypto companies and £9,000 on FairFX, a bank where you can pay with different currencies.
There was also £3,600 spent on lastminute.com, £1,000 on P&O cruises and £1,000 on Jet2Holidays.
Despite already fraudulently stealing millions from the businesses, Lewis also asked her Mr Davies to lend her £163,000 to help her buy a house but the money was eventually repaid by her mother and brother.
Lewis was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
Sharon Wathan
Sharon Wathan, 55, of Bridgend(Image: South Wales Police)
The 55-year-old stole over £240,000 from the company she worked for while it was forced to make redundancies and struggled to make ends meet following the pandemic. She worked for CMU Management for a substantial period of over 24 years. The court heard how she ran the payroll management and had sole responsibility over invoices.
The general manager of the company and another longstanding employee, carried out a review of the pensions in April 2024. This led to uncovering discrepancies over how much Wathan was receiving from the company compared to other employees.
There were two payrolls under Wathan’s name in the accounting programme, she had claimed she’d worked extra hours and overtime which she hadn’t worked, and had been using petty cash receipts and keeping the money.
The fraud related to two companies – CMU Management and CMU Infrastructure.
The overall loss to both was just over £247,000, equating to £128,000 and £118,000 to the companies respectively.
In September 2024, the company engaged an internal HR firm to investigate the fraud. In her first meeting, Wathan admitted everything and became emotional. She was dismissed for gross misconduct and later arrested.
Wathan was charged with two counts of fraud. Judge Porter-Bryant sentenced her to two years and six months in prison, and ordered her to pay a victim surcharge of £170.
Charlotte Blackwell
(Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE)
The 31-year-old invented fake wedding plans to steal thousands of pounds from her fiancé’s mother and others. The estate agent sobbed as she was spared prison for what a Cardiff Crown Court judge branded a “pack of lies”.
She had already avoided jail last August after another fraud in which she tried to con the children’s cancer charity Morgan’s Army out of £4,000. As we reported at the time Blackwell received a suspended 10-month sentence after lying to the charity that her daughter needed costly treatment in Germany when in reality she was in remission from cancer.
The mum was back in court over an 18-month deception which coincided with her scam against the charity. Blackwell had been in a relationship with a Daniel Thomas for five years before they got engaged in February 2022. “The couple initially decided to marry abroad,” said prosecutor Anisha Rai.
Between November 2022 and May 2024 Blackwell asked for and received money from members of the supposed wedding party under the pretence it was going towards a planned ceremony overseas. The four victims were her then-fiancé’s mother Paula Thomas, who paid £3,296, and three of Ms Thomas’ friends – Helen Morse, who paid £3,311, Sue Chapman, who paid £3,272, and Tracey Roberts, who paid £2,803, coming to a total of £12,682.
“In March 2024 it was Ms Morse who made enquiries with the travel agents Tui,” said the prosecutor. “When she provided the booking reference the defendant had given her she was informed the reference related to a different holiday for an elderly couple that took place the year prior. Following this the defendant sent the victims fake booking confirmations which had been made to look like genuine Tui documents.
“She provided them with fake flight confirmations, fake emails from travel agents, and fake bank transactions. She created fake email accounts to make it seem she had been communicating with agents. Ms Morse suspected something was not right with the documents from travel agents as there were spelling mistakes. She took them to the travel agents who confirmed they were fraudulent documents.”
When arrested Blackwell admitted to police she had been “falsely arranging” a wedding. Asked why she said: “I’m sorry – it was to pay off debts and gambling. I have now put a block to all sites.” One of the websites involved online bingo, the court heard.
Blackwell was sentenced to a 12-month prison term suspended for 18 months, a further 120 hours of unpaid work, and five days of rehabilitation activity. She was also ordered to pay £3,500 in compensation to each of each of her victims as well as £150 in prosecution costs. In floods of tears she agreed to pay at a rate of £400 a month.
Haroon Zaman
Haroon Zaman was jailed after the cryptocurrency scam came to light(Image: South East Regional Organised Crime Unit)
He stole more than £124,000 from over a dozen victims by running a cryptocurrency investment scam on social media, a court has heard. Between January 2021 and June 2023 the defendant hacked into his victims’ social media accounts and impersonated them online.
He then used these compromised accounts to promote fraudulent cryptocurrency “investment opportunities” to friends and family of the individuals he hacked.
Victims were persuaded to transfer funds on the promise of risk‑free returns. In reality, no investments existed, and the 23-year-old defendant stole a total of £124,479 from 17 known victims.
Zaman’s crimes came to light following an investigation by the cyber crime team in the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU), who worked in partnership with South Wales Police.
An investigating officer said Zaman showed a “complete disregard for the damage he caused” through the scam. Zaman pleaded guilty to 17 counts of fraud by false representation at a hearing on September 10.
Zaman, of Holmesdale Street, Grangetown, Cardiff, was sentenced to three years and eight months’ imprisonment at Reading Crown Court.
Dawn Hopkins
The 44-year-old claimed almost £94,000 in benefits she was not entitled to in a “flagrant” fraud which lasted for years, a court has heard.
A judge told the defendant that people are not impressed by “spongers” who dupe the public purse, and said “every bone” in his body told him he should send her to prison – but that by following the sentencing guidelines he could not.
Her claims for income support, carer’s allowance, child tax credits, and housing allowance – which were made on the basis that she was the primary carer for her son who lived at home – were initially genuine.
However, he said when the son was taken into the care of the local authority in 2018 the defendant continued to claim the benefits on the previous basis and did not notify the Department for Work and Pensions, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or Carmarthenshire Council of the change of circumstances.
The claims continued to be made by Hopkins until 2023 when “information was received” that her son was no longer living at home, and an investigation was launched. The defendant was interviewed in February 2024 and said she did not know she had to notify the authorities, and said social services should have told her about what she had to do.
The total amount of benefit overpayment amounted to £93,838, comprising roughly £40,000 in income support, £31,000 in child tax credit, £20,000 in carer’s allowance, and £3,000 in housing benefit.
Hopkins was sentenced to 10 months in prison suspended for two years. She was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and a mental health treatment requirement.
Kathryn MacDonald
Kathryn MacDonald, 44, stole £5,000 after defrauding customers at the gym where she was employed as a manager.(Image: South Wales Police)
The 44-year-old stole more than £5,000 from the gym she was employed by after asking customers to pay in cash and pocketing the majority of the funds. She had previously been jailed after stealing £48,000 from the council she worked for.
She was employed as a manager at B Fit Personal Training Club in Cardiff when she committed the fraud. Customers of the gym were required to make card payments in order to pay for memberships but the defendant asked three victims to pay via cash.
MacDonald paid only a small amount of money to the Roath-based gym, and kept the rest for herself.
The first victim paid £2,400 but the defendant only paid £252 of that to the gym.
The second victim paid £1,207 but MacDonald paid the gym £200 of that amount.
The third victim, a friend of the defendant, paid £2,245 but only £194 was paid to the gym.
As a result, MacDonald benefited by £5,825 through the fraud, which was carried out between August 2022 and November 2023.
Her actions came to light after discrepancies were noticed in the financial accounts of the gym, and following investigation the defendant was sacked for gross misconduct.
MacDonald was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment.
Christopher Harvey
Christopher Harvey, 35, attended the homes of an elderly man and woman and took their bank cards after they had been duped by fraudulent phone call.(Image: South Wales Police)
The 35-year-old went to the homes of an elderly man and woman and took their bank cards after they had been duped by a phone call stating their bank accounts had been compromised. Money was later withdrawn from the cards, with £3,600 taken from one victim.
The defendant went to the homes of his two victims in Maesteg, in Bridgend, and Cumberland respectively and took their bank cards, which were later used without their permission. They had received calls from someone pretending to be a member of staff at there bank or a private investigator, to say their had been fraudulent activity regarding their accounts.
The first fraud took place on November 22, 2024 when an 80-year-old woman received a call from someone claiming to be from her bank. The person on the phone claimed she had been the victim of fraud and she gave them her bank details. It was also arranged for Harvey to attend her property in Cumberland to collect her bank cards.
The victim later felt uneasy and contacted her bank who froze her card. By that time, £250 had been withdrawn from. After the card had been frozen, there were a further four transactions attempted for £1,000 but they were unsuccessful.
The second fraud took place on December 9 when an 83-year-old man in Maesteg received a phone call from a withheld number from someone claiming to be a private investigator. They persuaded the victim there was an issue with his card and he passed on his bank details. Again, it was arranged for Harvey to attend the address to collect the victim’s six bank cards, in order to “check them for fingerprints”.
The victim later realised £3,697 had been taken from one of his bank cards in order to make a purchase at a Curry’s store in Bridgend. He reported the matter to the police and the defendant was identified from CCTV and an ANPR camera.
Harvey, of Windsor Avenue, Wolverhampton, was arrested and was found in possession of bank cards belonging to the victims. He later pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by false representation and two counts of fraud. The defendant told police he had been threatened to carry out deliveries and was paid between £200 and £250 per job. He told the officers he “felt sad” when carrying out the frauds but carried on because of the threats.
Harvey was sentenced to a total of 14 months imprisonment. He will serve half the sentence in custody before he is released to serve the remainder on licence.
Victoria King
Victoria King – as known as Vikki Phillips – pictured in 2011
She stole £140,000 from her employers years after being jailed for leaving another employer out of pocket. She was already on a £45,000-a-year salary but paid herself an extra £7,500 a month by fiddling the books and creating payments to what looked to be a genuine supplier but was in fact herself. The 56-year-old defendant has never revealed what she did with the money.
Merthyr Crown Court heard that King – who is also known as Vikki Phillips – was jailed in 2014 for stealing £130,000 from a charity she was working for and went on to forge “glowing” references from her victims which she used to apply for another job in finance. The court heard she is currently working in finance for another company, though it is was not clear whether her current employer knew she was in the dock.
In 2021 King joined the Rhigos office of Eftech Ltd, a company which supplies adhesives and sealants to the automotive industry, as finance manager. She said in that £45,000-a-year role the defendant was responsible for making payments to the firm’s suppliers and had access to the company’s Lloyds bank account.
In April 2023 the defendant quit her job and the Belgium-based company decided not to replace her but to subsume the Welsh office’s finance operations into the Belgian operations. As part of the transition process a financial review was carried out which involved checking invoices and payments at the Rhigos office.
The audit highlighted discrepancies in the numbers and the boss of the Rhigos branch was asked to carry out an investigation. The prosecutor said the internal probe ultimately uncovered 21 payments made between October 2021 and July 2023 to an account which had a name almost identical to that of a genuine supplier.
In total some £140,197 had been paid into the account – an account controlled by King – usually in monthly amounts of £7,500. The police were alerted and the defendant was interviewed but answered “no comment” to all questions asked
King was sentenced to 32 months in prison. She will serve up to half that sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Craig Gibson
Craig Gibson gave false information in order to obtain more than £50,000 in finance in order to fund his own gambling habit. The amount of finance he attempted to gain fraudulently was more than £100,000. The 36-year-old furnished false information to obtain finance from Close Brothers Motor Finance between 2020 and 2022.
He made four applications, two of which were successful and two were unsuccessful. A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard the successful finance applications were amounts of £12,500 and £39,000 respectively.
The unsuccessful applications were made for £18,000 and £64,500 respectively.
Gibson, of Robins Lane, Barry, denied four counts of fraud by false representation, but was found guilty of the charges following a trial.
The defendant was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months. He was ordered to carry 125 hours unpaid work, 26 sessions of an accredited programme and to pay costs of £4,380.
Michael Anderson
Michael Anderson (Image: Instagram )
The 76-year-old who describes himself as a “builder extraordinaire” on advertising material, shafted multiple residents in Porthcawl to the tune of £263,607.43 over the space of four years, almost ruining their lives in the process
The defendant told all six of his victims he would never rip them off before proceeding to do just that. In powerful statements read to the court on Monday morning one of the victims said she had suicidal thoughts as a result of what Anderson did to her while a couple said they had to remortgage their “dream” home because they’d given so much of their money to Anderson.
The defendant did not complete the work he promised to do and also billed the victims significantly more than what he’d initially quoted. He left the houses in shoddy states of disrepair with some of them leaking and others far from finished before he walked away with the money.
Anderson was originally charged with three counts of fraud and one count of dishonesty by false representation before another victim came forward and Anderson was charged with a fourth count of fraud. His wife Sandra Anderson, 66, also of Danygraig Avenue, was charged with possessing criminal property for being the owner of a bank account holding £35,000 of the £263,000 which Anderson had obtained fraudulently.
Michael Anderson was sentenced by Judge Eugene Egan to three years and six months, at least half of which he’ll serve in custody before being released on licence. Sandra Anderson received 18 weeks suspended for 12 months. She must also wear an electric tag preventing her from leaving home between 7pm and 6am.
Zana Muhammed
Zana Muhammed, 42, of Princes Street, Flint(Image: North Wales Police)
The 42-year-old sold write-off vehicles worth around £300,000 and laughed at customers who wanted refunds. One victim of the unsafe or damaged cars, had her three children in the car when she broke down in it on a 60mph road before reaching safety.
After complaints were made to trading standards the police were brought in. A judge said defendant of Princes Street, Flint, had lied for two years and jailed him for four years for fraud.
Mold Crown Court heard Muhammed got cars from salvage auctions, and advertised and sold them but didn’t make buyers aware some were write offs with structural damage. Some had steering, suspension or brakes issues or cosmetic damage.
Lee Reynolds, prosecuting said Muhammed posted cars on Facebook or eBay then sold them from the site of an old ambulance station on Chester Road, Flint, close to his home.
Mr Reynolds said: “Purchasers would have been unlikely to buy the car at all if they would have known (about its condition) or would have been more keen to secure a lower price.”
The defendant gave customers “falsifications and lies” and there was “further obfuscation” when they attempted to return the vehicles or get compensation. Mr Reynolds continued: “The defendant sold a large number of cars with these dishonest tactics.”
“He refused to comply with his obligations (and) became aggressive, abusive and laughed at some customers when they tried to seek refunds.” Witness statements mentioned 19 cars but Mr Reynolds explained there were at least 36 more in the case.
The court heard Muhammed used various false names and several company names but “all roads, eventually, after diligent investigative work, led back to this defendant”.
Muhammed received almost £7,500 in cash from one customer for a car which she had spend £600 repairing. The buyer became suspicious but Muhammed wouldn’t let her see the front page of her car’s log book.
A family friend checked dealerships and discovered the car had been a write off. A different customer travelled 8,000 miles in the vehicle but lost £3,689 on it. One, customer, 17, bought her first car off Muhammed for £5,000 but later found out it had been a write off.
The court heard how one victim felt the defendant had them “over a barrel” as they had their money. When one customer said they would go to the police about him, Muhammed said: “The police are not a thing to him. They are working and he pays their wages”, the court heard.
Charlotte Cassidy
Charlotte Cassidy, 29, preyed on a vulnerable man by pretending to be him in order to withdraw thousands of pounds from his pension.
An elderly man was taken advantage of by three members of the same family who ran a driveway firm. They pretended to be him in order to withdraw thousands of pounds and had to be stopped by family members from taking him shopping to buy them Rolex a watch.
Charlotte Cassidy, 29, her brother Michael Cassidy, 21, and father William Cassidy, 53, took advantage of Paul William Lambert who was suffering with significant health issues and alcohol addiction. Shortly after the fraud, he was found dead by his parents as a result of suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, but his family believe his condition worsened due to his treatment by the Cassidys.
The family operated under the company name Fix A Drive based in Cardiff. They first came into contact with Mr Lambert after he employed them to carry out improvements at his home in Bridgend, including work on his kitchen, the construction of a summerhouse and digging up of his driveway. A quote was given of £18,000 for the work.
But once completed, the work was found to be of a poor standard and was “worthless”, said prosecutor Ian Ibrahim. The behaviour of Charlotte and Michael Cassidy caused concern to Mr Lambert’s family members after she attended the victim’s home without him being there, attended private meetings with his financial advisor, rummaged through personal documentation, rubbed cream into his leg and sat on his lap.
On another occasion, Mr Lambert’s parents attended the property and found him in an incoherent state with his eyes rolling into the back of his head. When they questioned Charlotte Cassidy, she admitted she had given him a sleeping pill.
Both Charlotte and Michael Cassidy were at Mr Lambert’s home when relatives arrived, and were told the Cassidys were going to take him out shopping for tiles. It later transpired they were attempting to coerce him into buying a Rolex watch for Charlotte Cassidy.
Their behaviour escalated when Mr Lambert was taken to his building society, and withdrew £25,000 from his pension. Around £17,000 was paid to Fix a Drive and a further £1,000 was paid.
In September 2022, a referral was made to Bridgend social services over concerns for Mr Lambert, and in October of that year, the victim’s financial advisor reported that a withdrawal of £15,000 had been made from Mr Lambert’s pension without consultation.
It was later discovered Charlotte Cassidy had made a phone call pretending to be Mr Lambert, in which she asked for £15,000 to be transferred. Her Irish accent on the recording was recognised by the victim. When she was told the money would be liable to 40% tax if withdrawn, she appeared indifferent and said: “Yeah, fine.”
Mr Lambert died in January 2023 aged just 61-years-old. An assessment was made of the work carried out at his property, which had been left as a building site, and the decision was made to knock down the summerhouse as it was structurally unsound.
A couple also fell victim to the Cassidy family after they employed Fix a Drive to carry out work at their home in Ogmore-by-Sea. William Cassidy attended and provided a quote of £17,500 for work to be carried out. In the second week of work, the couple became concerned about the quality and there were delays in the work being finished.
William Cassidy increased the price to £18,400 and refused to carry on until this was agreed, leaving the couple feeling anxious. He later demanded immediate payment of “10,000 for work to continue, after it had been initially agreed for payment to be made on completion. Both of the victims felt “intimidated” and “blackmailed” by his demands.
It was also discovered that payments for some of the materials used by the Cassidys had been made on bank cards which did not belong to them, with three separate fraudulent payments of £3,061, £2,000 and £2,500 made.
William Cassidy continued to ask the couple for further payments, but when third parties were employed to finish work, they refused on the basis the prior work carried out was shoddy. The defendant later attended their home to demand payment of £13,500 and tried to coerce the female victim to attend the building society with him to withdraw money, which she refused to do.
He attended the property again on numerous occasions and told the couple “they were from the Traveller community” and if the money was not paid they would return with an excavator and rip up the driveway.
Mr Lambert was left out of pocket by £20,900 in total, while the second victims were left £33,700 out of pocket.
Charlotte Cassidy, of Elmgrove Road East, Gloucestershire, pleaded guilty to dishonestly make false representation to make gain for self/another or cause loss to other/expose other to risk, engaging in a commercial practice which was aggressive, and two counts of possession/control of article for use in fraud. She was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for 24 months. She was also ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work, a 20 day rehabilitation activity requirement and an electronic tag for four months.
Williams Cassidy, of Broadsheet Common, Cardiff, later pleaded guilty to two counts of engaging in an unfair commercial practice and one count of fraud. He was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.
Michael Cassidy, of Broadsheet Common, pleaded guilty to transferring criminal property and engaging in an unfair commercial practice. He was sentenced to 21 weeks imprisonment suspended for 21 months, and was ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work.
Lucy Paginton
Lucy Paginton, 28, defrauded elderly couple out of £150k by creating false letters and bank statements.(Image: Gwent Police)
The 28-year-old defrauded an elderly couple in their 80s who had helped raise her out of £150,000 by creating false documents to suggest she was purchasing a house with their money. In reality she was using the money on staying at the Celtic Manor, travelling, and buying expensive clothes.
She was partially raised by her victims, 88-year-old Jack Hillier and his wife Mary Hillier, 90, from the age of two, and they described thinking “highly” of her and trusted her with their finances. It later transpired their trust in her was misplaced.
The fraud began in 2017 with the defendant using various methods to defraud the Hilliers out of as much as she could. Addressing a sentencing hearing prosecutor Thomas Stanway said: “She convinced them a property sale was being completed, which it wasn’t, and told Mr Hillier that civil claims were progressing when they were in fact a fiction.”
The defendant created a number of false documents using legitimate logos and headers in order to fool the couple, which added an air of sophistication to her deception. These included fabricated bank statements purporting to be from Halifax and letters from housebuilding company Redrow which falsely stated a housing plot had been reserved for the victims.
The majority of the fraud concerned claims made by the defendant she was purchasing houses in respect of herself and her partner and also the Hilliers, who had given her money for deposits. They had planned to sell their home, move into the new property, and would leave it to Paginton in the event of their deaths. More than £100,000 was paid to the defendant in bank transfers and cash payments in the belief Paginton was dealing with the house purchases on their behalf.
When it became apparent the sale wasn’t going through the defendant created false bank statements and solicitor letters to give the Hilliers a false sense of impression regarding the funds in their bank accounts and that they were entitled to compensation.
There were also fictitious letters from HM Courts and Tribunal Service and a solicitors firm after Paginton lied to Mr Hillier by falsely claiming she had instructed legal representation in respect of a civil claim made on his behalf to remove a caution he received. The letters she created gave the impression he was owed further compensation and he was required to pay £12,000 in fees but this payment was not made.
The total sum the Hilliers had been defrauded of came to £150,000 and an attempt had been made to defraud them out of a further £12,000. A report was made to the police and the defendant claimed she had accepted “gifts” from the Hilliers and denied creating false documentation. An examination of her bank account revealed the money had been spent on stays at the Celtic Manor, payments to high-end clothing company Flannels, and to various travel companies.
Paginton, of Cot Farm Circle, later pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud by false representation a week before a trial was due to begin. She was sentenced to four years and eight months imprisonment and she sobbed as she was led down to the cells.
Julia Evans and Dean Vowles
Mother and son Julia Evans and Dean Vowles leaving Cardiff Crown Court after being sentenced for fraud.(Image: John Myers)
Julia Evans defrauded her husband out of £8,700 from his pension after getting her son to pretend to be him on the phone. She also took out credit accounts in the names of family members including her own daughter.
The 53-year-old, of Tonyrefail, carried out the fraud against her husband Thomas Evans over a period of six months during which she made withdrawals from his pension fund. She was assisted by her son Dean Vowles, 31, who pretended to be Mr Thomas on the phone.
The mother and son attempted to cover their tracks by hiding documents but suspicion was raised and their fraud came to light. Sentencing, Judge Simon Mills said: “This was a particularly mean way of behaving. It involved persuading your son to become involved in this and it involved planning and devious behaviour.”
A gross sum of £10,200, amounting to a net total of £8,375, was taken from Mr Evans’ pension.
Evans, of Oakwood Drive, Thomastown, and Vowles, of High Street, Tonyrefail, were both found guilty of fraud by false representation following a trial. Evans was found guilty of a further three counts of fraud by false representation after she took out a Very account in the name of Joel Thomas, a family member, and Littlewoods and Very accounts in the name of her daughter Samantha Vowles. The sums taken in these frauds were described as “modest amounts”.
Evans was sentenced to 14 months in jail, suspended for 18 months, and Vowles was sentenced to 26 weeks behind bars suspended for 18 months. They were also made subject to a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement and Evans was ordered to pay £5,000 in compensation.
Chloe Warman
Chloe Warman leaves Newport Crown Court following a hearing in her fraud case(Image: Conor Gogarty)
Chloe Warman, 29, arried out a £58,000 fraud while overseeing a residential development. Construction entrepreneur Chloe Warman, from Cardiff, presented four fake invoices in connection to a build on the site of a former care home in Newport’s Fields Park Road. The defendant admitted four counts of fraud by false representation. Cardiff Crown Court heard she submitted the invoices while supervising the construction of nine homes on the site.
She admitted presenting false invoices to make gains of £27,830, £12,387, £12,186 and £6,193 for herself – a total of £58,596.
Warman, of Ferntree Drive in Trowbridge, committed the offences between July 10 and August 30, 2023.
At the time she was the director of a Newport-based construction firm called Imperial Designer Homes, which was dissolved in April by compulsory strike-off from the Companies House register.
Judge Matthew Porter-Bryant imposed a jail term of 12 months suspended for 24 months, a 120-hour unpaid work order, prosecution costs of £500 and a victim services surcharge of £187.
Ivo Lima
Ivo Lima was a trusted employee at the Spilman Hotel in Carmarthen when he stole £155,000 from the family-run business(Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)
The trusted employee at a family-run hotel, stole almost £155,000 from the business, pushing the firm to the edge of bankruptcy. He effectively took over the running of the hotel when the owner became seriously ill but systematically stole money from the business and diverted customer payments directly into his own bank account over a period of years.
Swansea Crown Court heard Lima was regarded more as a member of the family rather than an employee and he exploited that situation to “milk” the hotel in order to live a lifestyle above his salary.
Lima was working as general manager at the Spilman Hotel in Carmarthen town centre when a serious deterioration in the owner’s health meant he assumed additional responsibilities and effectively took over the running of the establishment.
In January 2024 questions began to be asked when it was realised the number of bookings the hotel was taking was not reflected in its income. The family who own the hotel turned to Lima and he said the difference was due to rising costs and bills.
When attempts were made to look at the hotel’s payments and banking systems it was found Lima had changed the passwords so nobody else could get access.
When family members eventually got into the systems they found money from the hotel’s Stripe customer payments account and Barclays Merchant account had been transferred directly into the defendant’s personal bank account and emails relating to the transactions had been deleted.
In total between February 2021 and July 2024 Lima stole £154,591 from the hotel.
When challenged the defendant admitted what he had done and paid back £1,500. He told the family he had spent the money on a car and electrical items.
Lima was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Jim Janes and Thomas James
The father-and-son team of cowboy builders bullied, intimidated and scammed homeowners out of hundreds of thousands of pounds, a court has heard.
Jim Janes and his son, Thomas James, targeted people across south and west Wales – many of them elderly and vulnerable, and some in poor health – leaving a trail of misery, debt and shoddy work behind them as they extorted money from customers.
When the pair were questioned or challenged about what they were doing they would become aggressive and confrontational, and in one case a customer was threatened with a “gypsy war” unless money was handed over.
Jailing the pair of eight years each, the judge told them their behaviour had been “marked by a cruel callousness” and said it was clear they had “no regard for the impact on decent people whose lives have been shattered”.
Lee Reynolds, prosecuting, told the court that during the course of the offending the defendants traded under multiple different company names, used fake personal names, changed phone numbers, and took payments into different bank accounts in an attempt to hide what they were doing.
He said the offending often followed a similar pattern with the defendants providing a quote for what was usually a fairly minor roofing job but then after the work began they would claim to have uncovered major problems for which they would demand ever larger sums of money in order to fix.
Sometimes the defendants would strip the roof without permission and leave properties open to the elements before threatening to walk off the job unless their demands for more cash were met.
The prosecutor said many of the dozens of victims of the defendants were people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s.
The court heard that when customers queried the work or challenged the new quotes they would be met with aggressive and intimidating behaviour, and in one case a customer was threatened with a “gypsy war” unless they paid up.
Many of the customers felt they had no choice but to hand over the money being demanded, and some homeowners paid the defendants tens of thousands of pounds. One customer lost £100,000 to the father-and-son fraudsters.
The court heard that what work the defendants did was shoddy and of poor quality, and many jobs they started were left unfinished.
The defendants were each sentenced to eight years in prison. They will serve 40 per cent of the sentences in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Ian Varley
Ian Varley took advantage of a vulnerable and illiterate man by using his identity to buy a car and take out car insurance. He was discovered after crashing his car and police attended the victim’s home where he had received “a torrent” of correspondence which he could not read.
The 49-year-old met his victim in church and began attending his home on a regular basis, pretending to be the man’s friend who liked spending time with him. The defendant was seen by the victim’s neighbours driving a black Audi A3 when visiting him.
Varley crashed his Audi A3 on May 31, 2020, and the vehicle sustained significant front end damage. The defendant gave the victim’s name and details, and the insurance details were also in his name, but when asked to provide documentation by police he began to stall.
The victim later received “a torrent” of documentation from Admiral insurance and asked neighbours to read out the letters because he couldn’t read or write.
All of them related to the defendant’s poor driving record.
Varley, of Acer Way, Monmouth, was arrested on March 7, 2021, and in his interview he admitted being the driver of the car but remained silent when asked about the fraud.
In total, Admiral Insurance suffered a loss of £9,926.
Varley was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment suspended for 16 months. The defendant was also ordered to carry out a 12 day rehabilitation activity requirement and was made subject to a restraining order for 10 years.
Katherine Hill
Katherine Hill outside Swansea Crown Court during her trial in April 2024(Image: WNS)
Katherine Hill stole her daughters’ £50,000 inheritance. A judge said the 53-year-old former bank employee’s actions had been driven by spite towards her children and that she had used the money as a weapon against the girls.
Her daughters had been left the cash by their grandmother which was to be held in trust until they turned 25 but the defendant plundered the bank account with the help of her elderly father Gerald whom she recruited to be her “patsy” in the fraud.
The £50,000 was left to the teenage girls in 2016 by their grandmother Margaret Hill – Katherine Hill’s mother – with Katherine and Gerald Hill acting as trustees. The cash was placed into a Barclays Everyday Saver account in the names of the defendants – something that went against the advice of solicitors and financial experts who had advised the inheritance should be appropriately invested.
Hill then recruited her 93-year-old father Gerald – the ex-husband of Margaret Hill and the teenage victims’ grandfather – in her plan to embezzle the inheritance. Over the course of just 12 months all the money was taken out of the account in a series of large cash withdrawals – some as big a £15,000 – made from the Barclays bank branch at Swansea Enterprise Park.
Hill worked a matter of yards away from that branch at the neighbouring Lloyds bank. The thefts came to light when one of the daughters asked for her share of her money early in order to put down a deposit on a house – under the terms of the inheritance the money could be given to the girls early if the trustees agreed.
The Hills denied fraud by abuse of position but were convicted at trial at Swansea Crown Court. Katherine Hill was sentenced to 30 months in prison while Gerald Hill was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for 18 months.
Vasile Vasile
Vasile Vasile, 25, pressured a man to pay him £1,300 in exchange for mobile phones which were fakes and of poor quality.(Image: Gwent Police)
Vasile Vasile and his accomplice pressured a man into handing over £1,300 after they had attempted to sell him fake and cheap mobile phones. He had contacted the victim on Facebook Marketplace, where the quality of the phones had been misrepresented. The 25-year-old made an arrangement with Vasile Albescu over the social media site to purchase two mobile phones and they agreed to meet in Newport on February 7. Upon arriving in Commercial Street on the day in question, Mr Albescu got into the seller’s car and found another man was present.
The defendant showed the phones to the victim but he immediately thought something was “a bit off”. He was shown receipts for the phones which initially appeared to be genuine.
Mr Albescu tried to back out of the sale and told Vasile he didn’t want to purchase the phones but he felt pressured to hand over £1,300 in exchange for the devices which were found to be fakes and of poor quality.
Vasile was stopped while driving in Abergavenny and was found to be driving whilst disqualified and uninsured. The defendant was arrested and later pleaded guilty to fraud and driving whilst disqualified and uninsured.
Judge Daniel Williams sentenced Vasile to a total of 24 weeks imprisonment. The defendant was also disqualified from driving for 12 weeks upon his release from prison.
Rebecca Newcombe
Rebecca Newcombe conned customers out of more than £7,000 after she sold furniture, clothes and caravan hires which did not exist. She created a number of social media accounts with aliases in order to hoodwink unsuspecting victims, and employed one woman who had to refund customers out of her own pocket when goods did not materialise. The 28-year-old of Ebbw Vale, would submit adverts on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram for the pieces of furniture and clothing, which were not real. She also posted adverts for caravan hires on legitimate website, UK Caravans For Hire, but the caravan did not belong to her.
There were a total of 35 victims who had been affected by the defendant’s scam. They had all come into contact with various social media accounts used by Newcombe, who received payment through bank accounts belonging to her mother and boyfriend.
Newcombe set up a social media account under the name “Furniture For Sale” which took money from eight victims. Confirmation of deliveries and date were sent out, but when items didn’t turn up, excuses were made, and the offending Facebook accounts were deleted.
Another account set up by the defendant, called Cheap Bargains, was used to sell replica clothing, jewellery and accessories. Payments were sent but deliveries were never made and requests for refunds were ignored. One of the victims was even employed by Newcombe to sell items, and she created her own Facebook account but when the products did not materialise, she had to refund customers out of her own pocket.
The majority of the funds Newcombe stole were as a result of advertising caravan hires for a caravan she did not own. She placed advertisements on social media and the UK Caravans For Hire website for caravan hires in Trecco Bay in Porthcawl, Tenby and Devon Cliffs. The defendant did this by contacting a genuine person who was offering caravan hires, and was given documentation and information, which she used to pose as that person to fraudulently con other victims.
Some of her victims arrived at caravan parks to be told they had not booked a holiday, and when contacted she pretended to be a police officer, became abusive or sought to reassure victims she was genuine. In total, she fraudulently took £7,881.
Newcombe, of Canterbury Road, Beaufort, was interviewed by police in 2021. She initially denied the offences but later pleaded guilty to 35 counts of fraud by false representation.
Judge Daniel Williams sentenced Newcombe to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for two years. She was also ordered to carry out 250 hours unpaid work, a 15 day rehabilitation activity requirement and to pay £1,000 in costs.
Ewan McGavin
Ewan McGavin (Image: Tarian)
A computer-literate “loner” teamed up with a teenager to create a fake Amazon website which would harvest people’s personal and financial details. Ewan McGavin paid the 16-year-old accomplice to set up a site imitating a legitimate Amazon webpage with the aim of tricking “less tech-savvy people” into entering their banking and other information.
Merthyr Crown Court heard that, though the scam did not actually go live, it had the potential to impact a significant number of people whose data could then be used for “criminal purposes” by McGavin. The 31-year-old defendant denied any wrongdoing but had previously been convicted at trial of encouraging or assisting in the creation of an article intended for fraud when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. McGavin’s co-defendant, Blaine Flatt, was sentenced for his part in the offending separately.
McGavin approached Bridgend teenager Flatt in 2018 and paid him more than £2,000 to create a so-called phishing website which purported to be an Amazon webpage dealing with refunds. In fact, the site – which had the address “amzconfimations.us” – was designed to steal people’s log in credentials and financial information such as bank card numbers.
The pair communicated over WhatsApp, with McGavin telling Flatt they would need to be “covert as f***” in what they were doing. However there appeared to be disagreements between the two over payment and the phishing site didn’t go live.
The authorities’ attention was first drawn to Flatt after he was linked to a Pinterest account containing indecent images of children. On November 19, 2020, police went to Flatt’s home in Bryn Cigfran, in Bridgend, and seized electronic items including iPhones, an iPad, laptop and a hard drive. On the devices police found more than 180 indecent images including some showing children as young as 18 months being abused. Police also discovered a total of 183g of cannabis and WhatsApp messages on his phone which showed he was dealing the drug.
In February last year Flatt, now aged 21, was sentenced to 24 months in prison suspended for 24 months and was ordered to carry out 200 hours’ unpaid work and complete a rehabilitation course. He was made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and will be a registered sex offender for the same length of time.
Ewan McGavin, of St Bride’s Close, Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, had previously been convicted of assisting or encouraging the making or supplying of an article for use in fraud – contrary to the Serious Crime Act 2007 – when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Judge Eugen Egan said the intention of the fake Amazon website was to “target vulnerable, less tech-savvy people” and trick them into handing over personal information which McGavin could then use “for criminal purposes”. He said though the website did not go live and there had been no actual losses, the offending had the potential for a large number of victims.
McGavin was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment.
Jeremiah Connors, Simon Connors and Ronald Connors
Ronald Connors(Image: Must Credit : Cardiff County Council)
Rogue builders Jeremiah Connors, 25, Simon Connors, 28, and Ronald Connors, 49,conned customers out of thousands of pounds after carrying out shoddy work that was left incomplete and in a dangerous condition. Customers had to spend thousands of pounds in order to repair the work carried out.
They defrauded a number of customers in the Newport and Bristol areas while trading under the names, Trade Price Pavings Ltd and Keyline and Co, and using a false address in Newport. Speaking at a sentencing hearing at Newport Crown Court, prosecutor Tom Roberts said: “All defendants obtained money from their customers for building work which was at best inadequate and incomplete and at worst dangerous.”
At the time of the offences, Ronald Connors was subject to a 10-year criminal behaviour order which prevented him from approaching a residential address occupied by someone over the age of 50, or of offering services on behalf of himself or another
The court heard there were a total of eight victims who fell foul of the Connors’ unethical business practices, between 2018 and 2021.
Ronald Connors, of Rembrandt Way, Newport, would often use the alias Bill to hide his true identity. He pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by false representation, two counts of being a trader recklessly engaging in unfair practice, one count of engaging in aggressive commercial practice and breach of a criminal behaviour order. He was sentenced to two years and six months in prison – half of which he will serve behind bars and the rest on licence.
Jeremiah Connors, of the same address, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation and two counts of being a trader recklessly engaging in unfair practice. He was sentenced to 55 weeks custody suspended for two years. He must complete a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement and 200 hours of unpaid work.
Simon Connors, also of the same address, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation. He was sentenced to 23 months custody suspended for two years and must also carry out a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement as well as 240 hours of unpaid work.
Lewis Morgan
The 26-year-old stole more than £17,000 from his father’s bank account after helping him with his online banking app. Once he had access to the account Morgan stopped the monthly printed statements being posted to his dad and set about helping himself to the funds.
A judge told the defendant his conduct towards his dad had been “disgraceful”, adding: “This offending should be to your undying shame.” The judge ordered the roofing firm supervisor to pay back the money he took in full at the rate of £500 per month.
The defendant’s father, Carl John James, agreed to transfer £6,000 to his son’s bank account to facilitate the purchase of a van.
He said though the father had an online banking facility he did not use it and Morgan assisted him with the app to make the payment. After security checks the transfer was approved.
The court heard that over the following months the victim became aware he was not getting his usual bank statements through the post and in March 2023 he went into his bank in Neath to raise the issue.
Bank staff told Mr James a request to stop sending printed statements had been made on his banking app. When the missing months were printed out and checked the victim found a total of £17,727 had been transferred from his account to his son’s account over the previous 12 months in sums ranging from £10 up to £1,100.
The complainant confronted his son about the transfers and Morgan admitted what he had done and apologised for it, saying he had been “stuck in a rut”. The matter was subsequently reported to the police.
Morgan was interviewed in February 2024 and made full admissions saying he had requested that the printed bank statements cease and had transferred money from his father’s account into his own account.
He said he thought he had taken around £12,000 and said he had taken it because of the “lack of proper upbringing from his father”.
Morgan was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for 12 months and was ordered complete a rehabilitation course and do 180 hours of unpaid work in the community. The judge also ordered the defendant to pay compensation of £17,727 at the rate of £500 per month.
Abdul Quasem
A 95-year-old vulnerable widow whose grandson swindled her out of £13,675 said “it feels like he stamped all over me”. Jobless father-of-four Abdul Quasem, 35, abused his position of trust having power of attorney over the finance and health affairs of his maternal grandmother Hindah Al-Maflehi.
Quasem, of Llys Maelfryn, Malvern Drive, Llanishen, Cardiff, deliberately targeted his “particularly vulnerable” grandmother who spoke no English and was away from her home in Cardiff visiting relatives in Yemen when some of the fraud occurred.
She had been left needing to borrow money to live and fly back home to Cardiff, a court was told. It was only when the elderly lady arrived back in November 2020 that she realised what her grandson had done and contacted police.
As well as taking money from her bank accounts Quasem lied to her that a lump sum payment due from her late husband’s Merchant Navy pension was £5,000 when in fact it was more than £9,000, Jac Brown, prosecuting said. Quasem also told the department of Work and Pensions that Mrs Al-Maflehi had died in order to make financial gain.
He later compounded his hurt and betrayal by then denying she was even his grandmother at all, the court heard. In a victim impact statement read in part to the court Mrs Al-Maflehi said if Quasem had asked for money she would have given it.
She said she was hurt he had never apologised and she had considered him her son as well as grandson. She regretted that he had not admitted sooner what he had done.
Matters began after the defendant had lasting power of attorney over his grandmother’s money, health, and wellbeing registered by the Office of the Public Guardian in 2019, the court was told. Quasem then applied for access to his grandmother’s TSB bank account and that was granted.
In 2019 he lied to her that a £9,343 lump sum payment from her late husband’s pension was in fact £5,000 and agreed with her to split the £5,000. He then withdrew £2,500 to give to his paternal grandmother and took money out by cashpoint with the fraud totalling £13,675.30.
Unaware of what was happening Mrs Al-Maflehi went to Yemen while her grandson also began to remove cash from her account in August 2020. When he stopped paying her pension in she was forced to borrow money to live in Yemen.
Quasem was sentenced to 18 months in prison suspended for 21 months. He was ordered to pay back £3,000 in reparation to his grandmother at £100 a month. He also imposed a restraining order prohibiting Quasem from contacting his grandmother for six years.
Jason Price
Jason Price, 28, stole more than £14,000 from his own father who had suffered a stroke and had been hospitalised. He took possession of his father’s phone and used banking apps to transfer money to himself as well as taking money from cash machines.
The thief defrauded his father, Raymond Price, after he had been left incapacitated by a stroke in 2023. The defendant took his father’s phone and began using it to gain access to funds, stealing £14,605 in total.
The defendant’s aunt became suspicious after she was told he had withdrawn a large amount of cash.
After Raymond Price told his sister he was concerned about his phone and banking issues she discovered her nephew had his father’s phone and asked him to return it.
Upon receiving the phone the defendant’s aunt realised the device had been reset and information had been wiped.
There were emails on the phone which revealed there had been a number of transfers made from Raymond Price’s bank account to that of his son as well as cash withdrawals.
A complaint was made to the police and Jason Price admitted sending sums of money to himself from his father’s account.
He said he was motivated to do this due to “chaos in his life” including his addiction to cocaine and gambling.
Price was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment suspended for 14 months. The defendant was also ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work, a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement, and made subject to a restraining order for five years.
Connor Hickman
Connor Hickman stole more than £21,000 from his employers after paying company funds into his own account. He did this by changing the pay details of agency employees to that of his own bank accounts.
The 24-year-old 24, was employed as a payroll manager for Bargoed-based Nos Da Healthcare and carried out the fraud between October 17, 2022 and June 27, 2023. He was a trusted employee who had access to company bank accounts and payroll details.
The defendant “used and abused” his position by changing bank account details of agency employees to his own. He also created bogus payslips and invoices in order to hide his tracks.
A total of 112 separate transactions took place, with the defendant paying himself £21,915 in total.
The fraud came to light after an agency employer was asked to pay money back to the company which he had not received.#
When this was queried, it was discovered the bank account which had received the payment belonged to Hickman.
At the time of the offence, the defendant was spending around £1,000 a week on cocaine and £500 a week on gambling at the time of the offences, which left his finances depleted.
Hickman was sentenced to a total of two years and four months imprisonment.
Dave McEvoy and Joseph Ellis
Builders Dave McEvoy (left) and Joseph Ellis ‘extorted’ more than £33,000 from an elderly couple
Crooked roofers Dave McEvoy and Joseph Ellis wiped out a pensioner’s entire life savings after taking the roof off his bungalow and lying about the work that needed doing.
The defendants took more than £33,000 from the victim and his wife and when the cash ran out they kept asking for more – even suggesting the couple could re-mortgage their property to release equity.
In the summer of 2024 a retired couple living in Ystalyfera in the Swansea Valley searched online for companies to clean the roof of their bungalow.
She said 21-year-old Ellis – who owned Trustwise Roofing Ltd – visited the couple and quoted them £1,250 for the job. The quote was accepted and the sum was paid by bank transfer.
The court heard Ellis and 51-year-old McEvoy started work the following day and began power washing the roof but then reported several of the tiles would need replacing and started removing them before asking for more cash.
Over the following days the defendants reported more and more issues with the roof, saying the felt layer was rotten and needed replacing, that the beams needed strengthen or replacing, and that the walls in the eaves would need to be rebuilt – each time demanding more and more money.
By now the bungalow had been stripped of its roof by the builders with only a partial tarpaulin cover to protect it from the elements and the husband of the couple felt pressurised to keep paying the extra sums being demanded.
In total the victims paid the rogue roofers £33,200 and when all the money was gone the defendants suggested the equity in the property could be released to pay more money.
Ellis and McEvoy then walked away from the job leaving the pensioners without a roof over their head and other roofers stepped in to make the property watertight free of charge.
The matter was reported to the authorities and an inspector who examined the bungalow concluded that the original cleaning job should have cost between £700 and £800 and none of the other work done by the defendants could be justified.
Ellis was sentenced to two years in prison and the judge activated three months of the previously-imposed firearm sentence to run consecutively making an overall sentence of two years and three months. McEvoy was sentenced to two years and three months in prison.
John Junior Janes and Steven Linsey
John Junior Janes (Image: South Wales Police)
John Junior Janes, 29, and Steven Linsey, 42, defrauded vulnerable customers by carrying out substandard work at highly inflated prices, intimidating victims who questioned the quality or cost of the work and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Steven Linsey (Image: South Wales Police)
The investigation, led by Shared Regulatory Services, uncovered a fraud targeting eight victims. The offences related to home improvement works, particularly driveways, patios, and gardens.
Janes misled customers using false company names, failed to provide proper cancellation rights, delivered poor-quality work, employed aggressive and intimidating sales tactics, and pressurised vulnerable individuals into paying large sums of money for inferior work, according to Cardiff council.
The total value of the fraud exceeded £60,000. Upon learning of the complaints and the investigation, Janes instructed Linsey to cold-call victims, offering them cash payments, significantly below the amounts taken, to persuade them to withdraw their complaints and retract statements, thereby attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Janes received a sentence of three years and nine months, while Linsey was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment.
Kimberley Wilson
Kimberley Wilson, 52, was managing the Castle Surgery in Neath town centre when she helped herself to tens of thousands of pounds from the medical centre’s coffers, spending the money on day-to-day expenses as well as on gambling.
The NHS counter-fraud service said the defendant had abused her position of trust “to steal money that was meant for NHS patient care”.
The defendant was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court to two years in prison suspended for two years, and been ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and and 200 hours of unpaid work in the community, after pleading guilty to fraud by abuse of position when the matter came back to court for a compensation hearing.