Parish council clerk jailed for £160,000 fraud
Thursday 8th September, 2022
A clerk who defrauded two parish councils out of more than £160,000 has been jailed for four years.
Whilst working at Towersey Parish Council in Oxfordshire between December 2009 and January 2021 she stole £135,000.
She also stole £26,800 from Chinnor Parish Council between December 2019 and January 2021 when she was assistant clerk.
The stolen money was in part spent on her house to prop up the spiralling costs of an extension.
The fraud came to light in 2021 when a Chinnor council's clerk spotted handwritten details on a fraudulent invoice.
It led to Towersey council's members trawling through their own accounts, which they had entrusted to Wills since 2006. According to the BBC.
Mark Davis, the parish council's chairman, said the council was left so strapped for cash by the mother-of-two that its new parish clerk has had to work for free."
She previously admitted four counts of fraud by false representation at an Oxford Magistrates' Court hearing on 10 May, 2022.