Twice Convicted Former Chartered Accountant Jailed for Fraud

Wednesday 30th September, 2026

A chartered accountant who defrauded her employer out of more than £40,000 before spending it all on a holiday to the French Alps has been jailed for one year and six months at Peterborough Crown Court.

The fraud took place when she worked at commercial vehicle dealers Marshall Thermo King, trading as Marshall Fleet Solutions based in Cambridge.

In February 2025, she ran a payment of £400,410 through the system from various suppliers, but the payment was £40,383 more than it should have been. Checks revealed the extra funds in question had been paid into an account of one of her family members.

The financial discrepancy wasn’t spotted until a few months later, when she got signed off work with a doctor’s note.

She had a wellbeing check with the company’s head of HR, where she resigned and out of the blue admitted taking the money fraudulently from the business.

She said there was no money left in the account it had been transferred to, and initially claimed the cash was for a family member’s medical treatment.

However, in Cambridgeshire Constabulary police interview she revealed the money had in fact been spent on a skiing holiday to the French Alps.

She said the decision to take the money was “spur of the moment” but confirmed she had a previous conviction for fraud by false representation. She said she was having money troubles due to this, despite earning about £80,000 a year.

Detective Constable Valentin Radulescu, who investigated, said: “By committing fraud for a second time she showed she had not learned her lesson, and this was looked on negatively by the courts, who imposed a custodial sentence which she had initially avoided.”

The first time she was disqualified from being a company director for 10 years after raising false invoices of £327,000 while she was finance director of Peterborough based marketing company.